La Clusaz, France

The commune of La Clusaz, population 1,800, is a resort town in the Haute-Savoie department of the Rhone-Alpes region in the mountains of southeastern France about 35 miles southeast of Geneva, Switzerland. It lies just to the south of Le Grand Bornand, another commune that uses TDR. In the face of intense development pressure, La Clusaz adopted a TDR program in 1983.

The development right in sending and receiving zones is FAR 0.08, meaning 8 square meters of floor area per 100 square meters of land area. Receiving sites must be at least 700 square meters in size and receiving area developers who choose to participate must buy at least 0.14 FAR from a sending site. For example, a 800 square meter receiving parcel would be required to transfer 112 square meters of floor area from a sending site (800 X 0.14 = 112 square meters.)

Renard (1999) reports that the program has worked but that sending area property owners have been disappointed by low TDR prices and lawsuits have slowed the progress of the program.

Renard, V. (1999) Application of tradable permits to land-use management. In Implementing Domestic Tradable Permits for Environmental Protection. Paris: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.