Port Orchard, Washington

Port Orchard, Washington, population 14,389 (2018), lies 15 miles across Puget Sound from Seattle. Due to its location within a growing region, the city expects its population to double by 2025. In 2019, it adopted an interjurisdictional TDR program aimed at preserving farmland, open space and rural character at Kitsap County sending sites and transferring residential development rights into receiving areas within the City of Port Orchard.  

Qualified sending sites are designated by Kitsap County and located in four zip codes. Owners of sending sites in Kitsap County can voluntarily record a conservation easement on their property. TDRs are calculated as the residential density allowed on these sites by the Kitsap County zoning code. Each development right sent from a sending site allows 2,000 square feet of floor area in a one-story height bonus in Port Orchard. TDRs can transfer by private transactions or TDR bank.

Port Orchard has mapped receiving areas where TDR can be used to exceed baseline building height. The with-TDR limits exceed the baseline heights found in chapters 20.34 and 20.35 of the Port Orchard Municipal Code. In 20.34, Residential Districts, baseline building height in qualified receiving areas ranges from three stories/35 feet in the R-3 zone to five stories/55 feet in the R-5 zone. In Chapter 20.35, Commercial and Mixed-Use Districts, baseline building height in the Downtown Mixed Use and Gateway Mixed-Use Zones can be governed by the Downtown Height Overlay District which allows a building height baseline of up to five stories/58 feet. The maximum with-TDR height limit is eight stories or 88 feet.