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Kittitas (pronounced 'KITT-i-tass') County is located in central Washington State. It spans from the lush forested Cascade Mountains to the upper Yakima River Valley plains and the Columbia River.
Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Program Introduction TDR Program Overview TDR Market Information Sending Site Information Receiving Site Information Glossary of TDR Terms FAQs
Kittitas County's TDR program aims to conserve valuable resource lands by transferring development potential from those areas to areas better suited to accept increased residential density. To achieve this goal, owners of qualified rural lands can choose to separate some or all of their unused development rights from their property and sell them to a developer who can use them to increase density at a qualified receiving site. At the same time that development rights are transferred from a sending site, a permanent conservation easement is placed on the sending parcel.
Properties qualified to send TDRs must provide a benefit to the public by preserving lands that are either:
By selling development rights, landowners achieve an economic return on their property while maintaining ownership of the land and conserving it for farming, forestry, habitat, recreation, or open space in perpetuity.
Many people who own land in the rural area would like to keep their land open for forestry, agriculture, or wildlife habitat benefits. However, because of rising land values, the economic pressure to subdivide and sell off pieces of the land is very strong. By becoming a sending site, a landowner can retain ownership of their land for forestry or farming while gaining some monetary benefit from selling off the development rights. It is also possible to reduce your property taxes by transferring development rights from your property.
Enrollment in the TDR program happens in several stages:
Each stage of the process has several steps. While timing will vary from site to site, it is usually possible to complete the entire process in three to four months. Detailed steps in the process include:
After the TDR Certificates are initially issued and sold, they become a commodity that can be bought and sold multiple times. During each sales transaction, the certificate must be recorded. Once the TDR Certificates are provided to the County as a requirement for final approval of a land use application, it is considered redeemed and cannot be used again.
The process does not always proceed exactly in this order and some of the steps may not be required under special circumstances. The steps involving a buyer are not necessary when a landowner does not desire to sell the TDR Certificate(s). Landowners may want to use their TDR Certificate(s) for their own development applications that increase density on other parcel(s) that they also own or may want to hold on to their TDR Certificates depending on market conditions.
The first step in the enrollment process is to complete a Sending Site Application. Download an application below and return it to the address on the application with a check for $400 to Kittitas County Community Development Services, and include the required information and supporting documents.
TDR Sending Site Certification Application
If your sending site is farm and agricultural land, it must be evaluated with proof of commercial agricultural income that meet the same requirements as for Current Use Agricultural taxation under RCW 84.34. Please attach this proof of income with the TDR application. See the http://www.dor.wa.gov website for more information on income requirements.
If your sending site is forest land, it must be evaluated with a Timber Management Plan for the property. The Timber Management Plan must be in compliance with Washington State Department of Revenue's guidelines dated June 2010 or as thereafter amended. See the http://www.dor.wa.gov for more information on Timber Management Plan requirements.