ABSTRACT
A Tradable development rights (TDR) scheme is created by imposing development restrictions on some lands and, in exchange, granting the affected landowners special license to engage in otherwise prohibited development of other lands. There are a few examples of TDR schemes in Canada, particularly in urban areas facing strong development pressures and rural areas of environmental or agricultural significance. The cities of Calgary and Vancouver implement a TDR scheme to protect heritage buildings in designated districts. Rural communities have experimented with TDR schemes to protect farmland, rural landscapes, and environmental amenities. In addition to the legal acceptance of uncompensated development restrictions in Canada, there are several conceptual challenges to the use of TDRs in Canada. A supposed advantage of TDRs over direct regulation is that they are a 'market-based' instrument, but that is as much a fiction as the legal fiction that 'development rights' are 'transferred' from one parcel to another.
