Bill Text: MI HB6188 | 2023-2024 | 102nd Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Land use: zoning and growth management; pilot project for a development rights market program; create. Creates land transfer act.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-12-03 - Bill Electronically Reproduced 12/03/2024 [HB6188 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2023-HB6188-Introduced.html
HOUSE BILL NO. 6188
A bill to provide for a pilot project for the sale and purchase of certain rights to develop land; to provide for the financing of the purchase of those rights by certain local units of government; and to provide for the powers and duties of local governmental officers and entities.
the people of the state of michigan enact:
Sec. 1. This act may be cited as the "development rights market act".
(a) "Agricultural land" means substantially undeveloped land devoted in whole or in part to the production of plants and animals useful to humans, including forage and sod crops; grains, feed crops, and field crops; dairy animals and dairy products; poultry and poultry products; livestock, including breeding and grazing of cattle, swine, and similar animals; berries; herbs; flowers; seeds; grasses; nursery stock; fruits; vegetables; Christmas trees; and other similar uses and activities. Agricultural land includes land enrolled in a federal acreage set-aside program or a federal conservation reserve program.
(b) "Commission" means the commission of agriculture and rural development.
(c) "Department" means the department of agriculture and rural development.
(d) "Development rights" means the rights to develop land to the maximum intensity of development authorized by law.
(e) "DRM ordinance" means a development rights market ordinance adopted under section 5.
(f) "DRM program" means a development rights market program provided for by a DRM ordinance.
(g) "Intensity of development" means the height, bulk, area, density, setback, use, and other similar characteristics of development.
(h) "Pilot project" means the development rights market pilot project provided for in section 5.
(i) "Receiving zone" means an area of land identified by a DRM ordinance to which development rights can be attached to increase the intensity of development without adversely affecting public health, safety, or welfare.
(j) "Sending zone" means an area of land identified by a DRM ordinance where development should be less intense than permitted by the development rights attached to that land to achieve a public benefit set forth in the DRM ordinance and from which development rights can be severed and sold.
Sec. 5. (1) Within 180 days after the effective date of this act, the commission shall select not more than 5 townships for participation in a development rights market pilot project. The townships shall be located in different counties. The township board of a township selected to participate in the pilot project may adopt a development rights market ordinance providing for the establishment, financing, and administration of a development rights market program.
(2) To be eligible for selection for participation in the pilot project, a township must meet both of the following requirements:
(a) The township must have a zoning ordinance adopted under the Michigan zoning enabling act, 2006 PA 110, MCL 125.3101 to 125.3702, or former 1943 PA 184.
(b) The township board must submit an application to the department on a form prescribed by the department.
(3) The commission shall select the townships to participate in the pilot project based on the following factors:
(a) The market for residential and commercial development threatening agricultural land in the township.
(b) The amount and quality of agricultural land threatened by development in the township.
(c) The ability of a proposed receiving zone to accommodate, in terms of both land availability and infrastructure capacity, the intensity of development associated with development rights that may be purchased from a sending zone. In determining infrastructure capacity, the commission shall consider current infrastructure and the township's ability to provide any necessary additional infrastructure.
(d) Protection of the public benefits described in section 7(1)(a).
(4) If requested, the department shall provide advice to a township selected to participate in the pilot project on the drafting of a DRM ordinance and the implementation of a DRM program.
(5) A DRM program shall allow a landowner to increase the intensity of development on land, beyond that otherwise authorized by law, by utilizing additional development rights purchased from other landowners. A DRM program shall provide for the severance of development rights from land in a sending zone and the attachment of those development rights to land in a receiving zone.
(6) The purchase and sale of development rights under a DRM program, including, but not limited to, the purchase and sale of development rights under section 9(2), shall be voluntary. Subject to section 9(2), the purchase and sale of development rights under a DRM program shall be at a price negotiated and agreed upon by the parties. A DRM program shall not acquire development rights by condemnation.
(7) A landowner may develop land within a receiving zone at the intensity of development allowed under applicable zoning, building, and other ordinances apart from the DRM ordinance or, if additional development rights have been purchased and attached to the land, may develop the land at a higher intensity of development as allowed under the DRM ordinance.
(8) If development rights have not been severed from land in a sending zone and sold, the landowner may develop the land at the intensity of development allowed under applicable zoning, building, and other ordinances apart from the DRM ordinance.
Sec. 7. (1) A DRM ordinance shall specify all of the following:
(a) The public benefits that the township may seek through the DRM program, which shall be 1 or more of the following:
(i) The voluntary protection of natural resources, scenic qualities, or open space land, including, but not limited to, agricultural land.
(ii) The voluntary enhancement of sites and areas of special character or special historical, cultural, aesthetic, or economic interest or value.
(iii) The voluntary management of land, water, and other natural resources.
(iv) The management of a community's overall intensity of development while allowing landowners to voluntarily purchase additional development rights to increase the intensity of development in designated areas.
(v) The encouragement of development in enterprise zones under the enterprise zone act, 1985 PA 224, MCL 125.2101 to 125.2123, in brownfields, and in other redevelopment areas.
(b) The precise location of each sending zone and receiving zone and the nature and quantity of development rights that may be severed from land in each sending zone and attached to land in each receiving zone. To determine this information, the township board shall do at least all of the following:
(i) Consider an estimate of population and economic growth during the next 10 years in the township and an estimate of the development potential of each proposed sending zone and receiving zone.
(ii) Consider the intensity of development otherwise allowed under applicable zoning, building, and other ordinances before the adoption of a DRM ordinance.
(iii) Consider an estimate of the existing and proposed infrastructure, including services and facilities, of each proposed receiving zone.
(iv) Ensure that a receiving zone is able to accommodate, in terms of both land availability and infrastructure capacity, the intensity of development associated with development rights that may be purchased from a sending zone.
(v) Ensure consistency with the plan upon which the township's zoning ordinance is based.
(c) The procedure for the severance, sale, purchase, and attachment of development rights, including the procedure by which 1 or more property owners may by application initiate such a transaction. An application shall include, but need not be limited to, all of the following:
(i) The identity of the land within a sending zone from which the development rights are proposed to be severed.
(ii) Subject to section 9(2), the identity of the land within a receiving zone to which the development rights are proposed to be attached.
(iii) The quantity and nature of the development rights proposed to be transferred.
(d) The procedure for ensuring that the severance of development rights from land in a sending zone and the attachment of those development rights to land in a receiving zone are both of the following:
(i) Simultaneous, except for the period during which development rights may be temporarily held by a township under section 9(2).
(ii) Fixed by a legal instrument so as to run with the land from which the development rights have been severed and to which the development rights have been attached, respectively. The development rights ordinance shall require that the legal instrument be promptly recorded in the office of the register of deeds.
(2) The township shall designate sending zones and receiving zones on its zoning map.
(3) The adoption of a DRM ordinance or an amendment to a DRM ordinance in a township shall be governed by the same procedures as apply to the adoption of an amendment to a zoning ordinance under the Michigan zoning enabling act, 2006 PA 110, MCL 125.3101 to 125.3702, including, but not limited to, procedures governing petitions and the role of the zoning commission. For the purposes of this subsection, properties in a sending zone or receiving zone shall be considered to be properties proposed for rezoning, except in the case of an amendment to a DRM ordinance that affects only other sending zones or receiving zones.
Sec. 9. (1) The township board shall approve an application under section 7(1)(c) if all of the following apply:
(a) The application complies with the DRM ordinance.
(b) The development rights proposed to be sold are unused and consequently available for severance from land in the sending zone.
(c) Under the DRM ordinance, the development rights proposed to be sold can be used on the land in the receiving zone to which they are to be attached.
(2) A township with a DRM program may purchase development rights from a landowner in a sending zone at fair market value, based upon a bona fide appraisal, temporarily hold the development rights, and resell the development rights to a landowner for attachment to land in a receiving zone. The price at which development rights are resold by the township shall not exceed the price at which those development rights were purchased by the township.
(3) Except as provided pursuant to subsection (2), development rights shall not be severed under this act unless the township has approved the attachment of those development rights to land in a receiving zone.
(4) A DRM program may be financed by any legal means.
Sec. 11. (1) Each township selected to participate in the pilot project shall submit to the department a series of 2 annual reports on that township's DRM program. The reports shall contain information requested by the department and shall be submitted on a schedule determined by the department.
(2) By 4 months after the deadline for townships to submit the last of the series of reports required under subsection (1), the commission shall review the DRM programs of townships selected to participate in the pilot project and shall submit a report to the legislature on the programs.
Sec. 13. The department may promulgate rules to implement this act pursuant to the administrative procedures act of 1969, 1969 PA 306, MCL 24.201 to 24.328.
