Purchase of Development Rights (cont.)
PDRs can protect family lands when conservation buyers purchase the development rights from the landowner.  In exchange for a fee based on fair market value, a permanent deed restriction is placed on the property, thus restricting the type and intensity of various activities that may occur on the land.  This legally binding agreement ensures that the development rights of the property are extinguished, thus protecting the property’s conservation values in perpetuity.

PDR programs are frequently used to protect productive agricultural lands and are also referred to as purchase of agricultural conservation easements (PACE).  With PDR or PACE programs, the development rights are extinguished entirely, as opposed to being transferred to another property (which is called a Transfer of Development Rights program).  This type of conservation approach is used to pay farmers and ranchers to keep their land available for agriculture. PDR programs often use public funding mechanisms to compensate landowners for relinquishing the right to develop the land as real estate.

The sale of development rights tied to the land often provides the income necessary to allow a landowner to keep the farm or ranch in the family.  Upon selling the development rights, the landowner retains full ownership to the land, continues to use the land for agricultural purposes, retains the right to sell the property at a future date, but does not have the right to use or sell the property for more intensive land uses.