It was a little piece of history Dec. 22 when Chattahoochee Hill Country residents Melissa Monk and Sean Ihndris became the second property owners to participate in a process that will help preserve the area’s rural nature while financially benefitting from that decision.

The initiative is called Transferable Development Rights (TDR). Passed by the General Assembly in 1998, TDR programs provide a way for an area to preserve agricultural and ecologically sensitive lands and historical landmarks, to stimulate economic growth and manage urban development. This is accomplished by selling the rights to acreage in a “sending zone” that is designed for protection to a “receiving zone” that is designated for future growth, according to University of Georgia Institute for Ecology.

Essentially, ownership of land involves a “bundle of rights” that may include water rights, mineral rights and development rights. The potential for a landowner to develop their property holds a certain monetary value that may be determined by existing market forces and permissible land uses. Under a TDR program, that monetary value can be brought into play by the landowner voluntarily “selling” the development rights on a portion of their property. Those development rights can then be used in an area designated for higher density development. This is a method envisioned in Chatt Hills that will complement the development of the “village” concept. In the Chatt Hills area, one TDR credit equals one acre of property. And at Chatt Hills, the Chattahoochee Hill Country Conservancy (CHCC) is temporarily acting as the “bank” to hold credits until a “buyer” emerges.

In the case of Monk and Ihndris, they sold nine acres on Cochran Mill Road to CHCC and retained 2.6 acres for their use. Their decision to sell nine TDRs, in addition to a similar move by another property owner in September who sold 12 TDRs, provides a way to receive monetary compensation for not developing their property. And it is a way to help preserve the rural character of the tens of thousands of acrea that make up the Hill Country.

“For Sean and I this was important because we are both strongly committed to sustainable agriculture and to the environment. When we found out about the TDR program it made sense to us because it’s a way we can give back by preserving the property. And for our neighbors who are interested, they can see how we went through this short and easy process,” Monk said. “A TDR also made sense because we are so close to Atlanta. We know development is on its way. This was a way we could encourage this area to stay rural and preserve greenspace, even with small acreage.”

Though beginning the TDR process with relatively small acreage, the recent transactions set in motion a portion of the vision held by many in the Chatt Hills area. That vision is committed to having planned quality development while having very large parts of the current 32,000-acre Hill Country remain green forever.

“What Sean and Melissa have done, along with the other pilot property, is to volunteer to help the process work” said attorney Bill Dreyfoos. “The important thing is that it wasn’t difficult for them. And what Chattahoochee Hill Country, as an organization, has done is to work with the county and property owners to try to make this an easy process for property owners who want to preserve their property and the Hill Country to put conservation easements on their property and make it work for everybody. The pilot project has shown that it is workable. We’re in a position now to move forward on a broad scale. Development can be haphazard or it can be done well. This kind of development preserves the landscape and the environment and still provides development potential for the area.”

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