Stowe, Vermont

Stowe, Vermont, population 4,437 (2018), lies at the foot of Mansfield Mountain 30 miles east of Burlington in the mountains of northern Vermont. It is a well-recognized resort community and calls itself the Ski Capital of the East. Its TDR code aims to generally preserve important resource lands and rural character. In particular, it seeks to concentrate development on Mountain Road in growth nodes.   

Sending areas are lands in the Mountain Road District or the Meadowland Overlay. Owners who choose to participate, record a density reduction easement on the sending site. When transferring rights from a residential to a commercial district, the acreage of the sending site is divided by the minimum lot size and multiplied by five to determine the number of extra lodging units allowed on the receiving site. Previously approved transfers may be reversed if the TDRs are not used at a receiving site.  

There are seven receiving areas: Mountain Road Crossroads, Mountain Road Village, Moscow Commercial, Lower Village Commercial, Ski-PUD, Village Commercial and Village Residential. Development rights allow up to eight percent additional building coverage, three additional dwelling units per acre, or five extra lodging units per acre. 

Stowe allows development rights to be severed and held by the Town, a private non-profit conservation organization, or any other interested party acting as a TDR Density Bank. A bank may sell all or some of the TDRs from a sending site to multiple receiving sites.