Contact Information:
For further information regarding Transferable Development Rights (TDRs) in Summit County contact:Status of Countywide TDR Regulations (Last Updated October 2007):
Summit County is 619 square miles and incorporates the towns of Breckenridge, Blue River, Dillon, Frisco, Montezuma and Silverthorne. The county is home to four world-class and destination ski resorts (three of which are year-round). For planning purposes, the county is divided into four basins (Lower Blue, Snake River, Ten Mile and Upper Blue) and each basin has respective TDR program regulations.
To provide uniformity in regulations, the county continues to refine and coordinate the TDR programs for each basin. There are a number of significant issues that are currently being worked on and need to be addressed to bring closure to the “Countywide” TDR Program Regulations. These issues, in no particular order, include:
An anticipated timeline to thoroughly address these issues is Fall 2007 and early 2008.
County TDR Sending and Receiving Areas Maps
As part of the Countywide TDR Program Regulations, the Board of County Commissioners has adopted “Official Transfer of Development Rights Sending and Receiving Areas Maps” for each of the four basins. The maps were adopted as part of codifying respective basin TDR regulations and designate neutral, receiving, sending and optional areas in respective basins. Neutral, receiving, sending and optional areas are currently defined as:
Neutral Areas: Those parcels that have been determined to not be suitable for transferring development rights from or to, and therefore not eligible to send or receive density.
Receiving Areas: Those parcels potentially suitable for transferring development rights to. A parcel may not actually be used as a receiving area unless it receives approval for a zoning amendment, PUD, or PUD amendment subject to the TDR provisions contained in the Development Code.
Sending Areas: Those parcels suitable for transferring development rights from.
Optional Areas: Optional areas are only applicable in the Lower Blue Basin. An optional area refers to those parcels that have been determined to be suitable for sending or receiving development rights, and therefore eligible to send or receive density. However, an optional area does not enable the parcel to both send and receive development rights, only one or the other.
Official Upper Blue Basin Transfer of Development Rights Sending and Receiving Areas Map [3663 KB]
Official Ten Mile Basin Transfer of Development Rights Sending and Receiving Areas Map [2312 KB]
Official Snake River Blue Basin Transfer of Development Rights Sending and Receiving Areas Map [2092 KB]
Official Lower Blue Basin Transfer of Development Rights Sending and Receiving Areas Map [2882 KB]
Background - Upper Blue TDR Program
The Upper Blue Basin TDR Program was initiated in 2000 and has been the most successful TDR program in the county. In six years it has protected 939.69 acres and generated $1,366,833 to be recycled for more open space purchases. The success of the Upper Blue TDR Program stems from the joint efforts of the county, and towns of Breckenridge and Blue River to implement the program, and more importantly the public foresight, initiative and support to develop the program.
The Upper Blue Basin is about 80,400 acres in size with a permanent 2007 population of approximately 8,838 residents. Roughly 76 percent of the basin is national forest system lands, the majority of which comprises undeveloped mountainsides. The primary areas of development are within and adjacent to the towns of Blue River and Breckenridge, in close proximity to the valley floor of the Blue River.
The Upper Blue Basin backcountry consists of hundreds of private mining claims that are often located in sensitive environmental locations and on ridgelines or in above-timberline locations. These mining claims have the ability to be developed for residential purposes. Development on these claims could subsequently obstruct valued viewsheds and recreational access to national forest system lands. Thus, the initial and primary goal of the Upper Blue TDR regulations was to implement a program to help protect backcountry areas and open spaces on the mountains surrounding the Towns of Breckenridge and Blue River from development.
Owners of backcountry parcels may voluntarily participate in the TDR program. In exchange for giving up their right to develop a backcountry parcel the property owners are monetarily compensated. When a property owner is compensated, the development rights associated with their property are transferred into areas that can more appropriately accommodate development (areas within or near the Town of Breckenridge or Blue River). There is a market for TDRs because county and town policies prohibit the upzoning of land (i.e., adding more units of density) unless TDRs are acquired.
Important components to making the Upper Blue TDR Program work are the development of the Backcountry (BC) zoning district and the Upper Blue TDR Bank. In conjunction with the development of the Upper Blue TDR Program regulations, the hundreds of private mining claims in the basin were rezoned to the Backcountry zoning district. The purpose and intent of the Backcountry zoning district is to retain the relatively undeveloped character of backcountry areas while allowing for very low impact development. However, the Backcountry zoning district provides tradeoffs to backcountry property owners. For example, there are limitations on the size of structures that can be built in exchange for relaxed county road improvement standards to access these private mining claims.
The Upper Blue TDR Bank provides a benefit to potential users of TDRs and was created as a way to help bring prospective purchasers and sellers of TDRs together. A backcountry property owner who is interested in selling their development rights would normally have to locate a potential purchaser on their own. Vice versa, a developer would normally have to do extensive research to locate prospective sellers. The Upper Blue TDR Bank allows either party to voluntarily come to one known location to complete these arrangements. The county administers the TDR Bank, in coordination with the Town of Breckenridge. One TDR is equal to 20 acres of backcountry property (with a couple exceptions) and is sold by the County for $40,350 or approximately $2,000 per acre. This price is increased or adjusted yearly.
Overall, since it was initiated the Upper Blue TDR Program has protected approximately 60-70 percent of the identified backcountry area in the Upper Blue Basin. Recently the program was amended to allow platted properties in designated receiving areas containing high quality wetlands to possibly qualify as TDR sending areas. Based on the success of the Upper Blue program, the Snake River and Ten Mile basins developed TDR program regulations almost identical to the Upper Blue’s in 2006. Additionally, rezoning of approximately 341 backcountry claims to the Backcountry zoning district in these basins was completed in August 2007. The county is optimistic about continued growth, success and more coordinated approach to utilization of TDRs in the future.
Additional TDR Program Information
The Lower Blue Basin TDR regulations were adopted in September 2007, and the basin has had one (1) transaction protecting 20 acres. The Ten Mile Basin TDR regulations were adopted in July 2006, and is the only basin of the four not to conduct/enact a TDR transaction. The Snake River Basin has had a TDR program in place since 1998 and has had (8) separate TDR transactions protecting approximately 131.9 acres. The Snake River TDR program was modified in November 2006.
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