Town of Springfield Residential Development Rights Study
To support residential development planning in the Town of Springfield, CARPC staff and MDRoffers Consulting recently completed a study examining how development rights have been used on the Town’s farm parcels in the last four decades.
Town staff, officials, and residents had long been eager to understand how much residential development potential remained in the Town. Like many parts of the county that adopted Exclusive Agricultural Zoning in the late 1970s, residential development in most of Springfield is limited to 1 dwelling per 35 acres in each farm as of April 1979.[1] Many of these so called “development rights” have already been used up through the division and sale of land for residential development (“splits”).
Since these policies started in 1979, we traced the changes made to farms that existed at that time by reviewing old maps, researching data from multiple sources, and consulting current and former Town officials who recall the history of sales and construction over the past 40 years.[2]
The result is a set of four maps illustrating the boundaries of the 1979 farms, parcels created prior to and since that time, as well as the calculated number of “splits” used and remaining on each 1979 farm. These maps show that a total of 38% of allocated development rights have been used between 1979 and August 2023.
Information about the remaining number of splits and their locations will be used by the Town in development decisions and its Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program. The maps will help assess development potential that can be transferred out of TDR “sending areas” to “receiving areas” which provide more suitable locations for residential development.
Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) programs offer rural communities a valuable tool for preserving agricultural lands and environmental resources. This practice also allows communities to build their tax base by directing residential development from areas that are not well suited for development to more appropriate locations. More information on TDR can be found here:
Example Resolutions, Model Ordinance Language, and Local Examples
Town of Springfield TDR Program Website
[1] This applies to A1-EX, Exclusive Agricultural zoning. Several towns have adopted even more stringent requirements.
[2] The nuances of the Town’s policies and the development of the maps is explained in greater detail in this presentation by Mark Roffers of MDRoffers Consulting.