Transfer of Development Rights

A Transfer of Development Rights program, which would allow property owners to sell the development rights to their property while retaining ownership of the land itself, was developed for the CHCA area by Dr. Laurie Fowler and Dr. Jamie Roskie of the University of Georgia School of Law, College of the Environment.

On April 22, 2003, the State Legislature passed an amendment to the Transfer of Development Rights legislation (Senate Bill 86), making TDRs available to any county that adopts enabling TDR ordinances. Fulton County had already passed the enabling ordinance on April 2, 2003, making Fulton County's Chattahoochee Hill Country the first area eligible for TDR transactions, not only in Georgia, but in the entire southeastern United States.

Please click on the documents below to learn how TDRs work. The Fulton County TDR ordinance makes the transfer of development rights available to Chattahoochee Hill Country landowners with one acre or more of undeveloped property, excluding the county mandated 75-foot streamside buffer. The landowners will be allowed 1 TDR per 1 acre of property without a residential structure.

If you own land in the south Fulton Chattahoochee Hill Country area and are interested in TDRs, please contact the CHC Office at 770-463-1548.