Abstract
The Growth Management Act (1990) required Washington communities to plan for their growth over the next twenty years. In response to this mandate, the Seattle city council adopted Seattle's Comprehensive Plan 1994. In 1985, the Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs) program was initiated as a part of Seattle's Downtown Plans. In 1998, King County adopted the new ordinance that allows transfers from rural portions of King County to incorporated cities within the County. In the Seattle downtowns, TDRs were applied to transfer the floor area ratio from sending areas such as small buildings and city properties as public parks, civic centers and public libraries. Open Space TDRs allow current and future sites retained or developed as open spaces to sell unused development capacity as TDRs to other downtown projects. City Property TDRs enable unused development capacity from city-owned properties within the Downtown Urban Center to be available for sale as TDRs. Historic Building TDRs create a TDR for historic buildings that allows the inherent, functional space inefficiencies of renovated, designated historic structures to be transferred as TDRs to offer downtown sites as a multiplied value.
