The commune of La Cadiere d’Azur, population 5,000, is a village on the French Riviera in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region, roughly 30 miles east of Marseille. The village is surrounded by vineyards which the commune seeks to protect using a development code that allows the transfer of development rights from the countryside to receiving areas planned for growth. According to Vincent Renard (2006), the program was promoted by landowners who wanted to continue farming their vineyards but also liquidate their development potential in the face of pressure to build countryside homes. Unfortunately, the initial launch of La Cadiere d’Azur’s TDR program occurred before decentralization of land use regulatory control from the state to local authorities. Renard observes that the central governments’ urban development authorities (DDE – Direction Departementale de l’Equipement) were not enthusiastic about TDR (Renard, 2000; Renard, 2007). Renard suggests that this resistance prevented refinements that might have allowed the program to succeed (Renard, 2006).  

Renard, V. (2000) Land markets and transfer of development rights: some examples in France, Italy and the United States in Fossati, A. et al (eds) Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development. Norwell, Massachusetts: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Renard, V. (2006) Compensation rights for reduction in property values due to planning decisions: the case of France. 5 Wash. U. Glob. Stud. L. Rev. pp. 523 – 534.

Renard, V. (2007) Property rights and the transfer of development rights: Questions of efficiency and equity. Town Planning Review, 78, pp. 41-60.