Peach Bottom Township, York County, Pennsylvania

Peach Bottom Township, population 3,700 (2011), is located in York County, in southeastern Pennsylvania. Twelve municipalities in York County use TDR. The Susquehanna River forms the eastern border of Peach Bottom Township and the Pennsylvania-Maryland state line forms the southern border. The land includes wooded hills and farmland with several fruit tree orchards near the River. The Township’s TDR provisions apply only in the Agricultural zone and are designed to permanently preserve agricultural land .

Process

The Peach Bottom TDR provisions allow the right to construct a dwelling to be transferred between two properties in common ownership. Inadequate access, steep slopes, wetlands and similar physical features cannot preclude development of the proposed sending parcels. The code specifies that transfers should be motivated by the desire to preserve agricultural land rather than the presence of development constraints. Sending sites must either contain an existing dwelling or have allocated to it the right to build at least one dwelling. Once a dwelling is constructed on site, a recorded agreement between the Township and the property owner precludes any additional dwellings or lots on the sending site.

The receiving site must consist of land of low quality for agricultural use or of land that is less desirable for agricultural use than the sending site.

Program Status

In 2000, Gilbert Malone, who serves as the Township Attorney, reported that more than six transfers had occurred by that date from the Peach Bottom Township TDR program.