Planners Will Review Transfer Rights

David Oliver of Budd's Creek waits for buyers to check out his 10,000 pounds of tobacco during the 2002 auction in Hughesville. (By Andrea Bruce -- The Washington Post)

Aproposed amendment to the St. Mary's County Zoning Ordinance that would revise provisions governing the transfer of development rights program was referred to the Planning Commission on Tuesday after brief discussion before county commissioners.

The program allows property owners to sell their development rights to a buyer, who then can use the rights to obtain approval for development elsewhere in the county. The original tract, known as the sending property, would be preserved as open space.

Among the proposed revisions:

· The calculation of the number of TDRs on a sending property would be changed to one per five acres using gross acreage instead of the current calculation of one TDR per three acres after deducting from the gross acreage all areas deemed environmentally sensitive.

· The transfer of development rights would continue to be allowed from sending to receiving areas within the Rural Preservation District but would require a TDR for each dwelling after the first one on a receiving property.

· The use of TDRs would be prohibited for a greater density than one dwelling unit per five acres in the Rural Legacy Area.

Tobacco Auction Set

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The Maryland Tobacco Auction Market will open March 21 and close March 23. A crop estimated at 300,000 pounds will be sold over the three days.

This year's crop is the smallest to go to auction since recordkeeping began in 1866.

The auction will be conducted at two locations, as it was last year: the Farmers and Hughesville tobacco warehouses in Hughesville.