(October 29, 2020)

The Town of Dane, population 1,137 (2018), is one of 61 towns, villages and cities within Dane County, the county that surrounds Madison, Wisconsin. The Town remains primarily agricultural despite its proximity to the Wisconsin State Capitol and the University of Wisconsin.

In 2016, the Town of Dane adopted a TDR program using the TDR zoning districts provided by the Dane County TDR program. Sending areas are parcels in the Agricultural Preservation Area with unused development potential. The TDR-Sending Overlay can be applied to land in the Farmland Preservation 35 and NR-C zoning districts. 

The TDR-Receiving Overlay only applies in the Rural Mixed Use, Rural Residential, Residential and Hamlet zones. Development rights are transferred on a one-to-one ratio to receiving sites that are less suitable for agriculture than sending sites. Rezoning to TDR-R is not allowed within the extraterritorial plat review jurisdiction of an incorporated municipality. The following are not considered to be increases in receiving site density: community living arrangements, attached accessory dwelling units, long-term care facilities and nursing homes. 

Maximum density on TDR receiving sites is limited to four units per 35 acres.  The program does not increase the total number of housing units originally available as of June 28, 1979.