Open space preservation is great as a counter to more sprawling suburban development, but it's important to consider that development rights are worth something. What an easement does is buy up the development rights, and then do nothing with them. I hope that the next Northampton County Executive will create a Transferable Development Rights Bank. How it would work is that the bank buys up development rights from farmers and other big landowners on the periphery, and then developers *buy* those development rights from the TDR Bank, to use in downtown and close-in areas. The development rights would be for adding more air rights to a parcel. They would allow developers to build more densely, over and above whatever height limits or lot occupancy restrictions are in place. In most of Allentown, for example, you can't build taller than 38 feet, even in high density residential
zones. A developer could purchase some development rights from the TDR bank, sold to TDR from a farmer in Williams Township, to add more air rights to a few parcels and build a few 60 foot multifamily buildings. You'd be transferring the development rights from the farmer to the city, the farmer would get paid in full, and the region would have no less developable land for housing. This would keep housing prices affordable, and would eliminate the need to use any taxpayer money for farmland preservation.