Purchase of Development Rights

"Preserving Agriculture in Thurston County"

On Tuesday, July 26th the Thurston Board of County Commissioners held a public hearing on the proposed Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) Ordinance. Because of the public interest in this subject, the written public comment period has been extended to September 23, 2011.

For those who would like to submit written testimony, comments can be submitted to Scott McCormick at:

E-Mail:	mccorms@co.thurston.wa.us
Mail:	2000 Lakeridge Drive SW Building 1, 2nd Floor Olympia, WA 98502-6045
Phone:	(360) 754-3355 x 6372

Click here to read the draft PDR Ordinance.

Purchase of Development Rights information:

• This ordinance is the result of a grant from the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office to develop and adopt a Purchase of Development Rights ordinance.
• This is an enabling ordinance to set up a voluntary Purchase of Development Rights program with Thurston County.
• What the ordinance would do is:
  • Authorizes Thurston County and qualified conservation organizations to purchase development rights (essentially residential density), with the purpose of preserving farmland.
  • The program will compensate land owners for agreeing to conserve their land.
  • Generally, the property owner would retain ownership of the land and continue to reside and farm the property.
  • County Conservation Futures funds would be used as matching funds in partnership with non-profit land trusts to maximize and leverage public funds.
• Adoption of the ordinance is tentatively set for September 27th.
• Once the ordinance is adopted, there will be additional program details to develop, including:
  • A program guide
  • project selection and ranking criteria
  • Application materials, and
  • Assembling a technical advisory committee to assist with future PDR applications.

Thurston County thanks the following agencies and organizations for their participation:
National Resources Conservation Service, the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, the South of the Sound Community Farm Land Trust and the Capitol Land Trust.

 

Contact Us

Interested Parties: If you would like to be added to our Web Mail list, please click here.

For more information please contact Jeremy Davis, Senior Planner. Phone: (360) 754-3355, x7010 E-mail: davisj@co.thurston.wa.us