Landscape Conservation and Local Infrastructure Program
Revitalizing our communities while conserving farms & forests, the Landscape Conservation and Local Infrastructure Program is a ground-breaking program that will dramatically impact how we shape our future. It combines a real estate tool called Transfer of Development Rights with a public financing opportunity for cities.
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ADD—Conserved farms and forests
Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) is a market-based tool that promotes growth in places it is desired while conserving farms, forests, ecologically significant areas and open space. It gives landowners the option of selling the development value from their property as an alternative to building. Developers purchasing these rights receive bonuses, such as additional height or square footage, in areas more suitable for growth.
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PLUS—Revitalized communities
In exchange for accepting development rights, cities gain access to financing for revitalizing and redeveloping neighborhoods. Shared tax revenue generated by growth allows cities to invest in parks, streetscapes, utilities, roads and other infrastructure that helps make communities attractive places to live and do business.
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TO EQUAL—A better future for our families
Landscape Conservation and Local Infrastructure Program (LCLIP) is an unprecedented opportunity to link the future of our communities with the conservation of our farms and forests. Improving our neighborhoods will enhance the quality of life in cities while conserving farms and forests will help keep our region healthy, sustainable and prosperous.
Case in point
The City of Seattle and King County are early adopters of LCLIP, implementing the program in fall 2013. Seattle has agreed to accept 800 TDR credits into the South Lake Union and Downtown neighborhoods, which will conserve over 25,000 acres of farm, forest and rural land. Over a 25 year period, LCLIP is anticipated to provide $27.5 million in infrastructure financing, which Seattle plans to use for green streets, a community center, and bike, pedestrian and transit projects. Today, Seattle is well on its way towards the ten-year target of 400 credits in about 15% of the time.
Related Perspectives and News
Op-Ed in the Seattle Times
In a Seattle Times op-ed, Forterra’s president Gene Duvernoy shares findings from recent polling we’ve done on attitudes toward growth in the Pacific Northwest.
You don’t pick your ancestors
Sustainability requires a clear understanding of the current world and the direction we need to head.
Putting Down Roots
Almost 1,900 volunteers converged to celebrate Green City Days at parks and green spaces across Puget Sound this fall. They planted more than 11,500 native plants. There are now twelve cities in the Green City Partnerships—Everett, Kent, Kirkland, Puyallup, Redmond, Seattle, Snoqualmie, Tacoma, Tukwila, SeaTac, Burien and Des Moines—and these annual events give volunteers a wonderful opportunity to help restore their local natural areas while building community through stewardship.
So Much Here: Excerpts from the Shelf Life Community Story Project
Most days the store feels more like a community center than a grocery store. Like a lot places in the Central Area, it’s a community center that we’re about to lose… The more people I talk to, the more I begin to see the Central Area as an intricate constellation of stories connecting generations of residents and all the hard work they’ve done to stay put and build and thrive. There are lots of bright stars in that constellation, where many stories intersect. The Red Apple, at the corner of South Jackson Street and 23rd Avenue South, is one of them.
Saving Dead Man’s Pond
Forterra, a nonprofit formerly known as the Cascade Land Conservancy, purchased the 5-acre property in west Puyallup for $336,000. Forterra…
Cedar River Restoration Program winning battle against knotweed
After five years of restoration work on the Cedar River and its tributaries, the collaborative Stewardship in Action (SiA) program…
Cross Laminated Timber used as new Sequim classroom installation begins
Contact: Leda Chahim Government Affairs Director Forterra 206-905-6922 (office); 206-227-1433 (cell) | lchahim@forterra.org SEQUIM, WA — Installation began today on…
Forterra gets comfortable with cities and small towns alike
Ten years ago, the then Cascade Land Conservancy launched The Cascade Agenda, a bold plan to conserve 1.3 million acres…