1. “Certificate of TDR availability” refers to a document issued by the director confirming the development rights (including, but not limited to, increased floor area, and related off-street parking reductions) available on a sending site.

2. “Certificate of TDR receipt” refers to a document issued by the director and executed, acknowledged, and recorded by the owners of a receiving site and a sending site to document the transfer or sale of development rights from a sending site to a receiving site.

3. “Development rights” are the right of the owner of a sending site to develop building floor area on the sending site in accordance with BMC 12.48.140, expressed as gross floor area square footage.

4. “Director” means the community development director or their designee.

5. A “governmental owner” is either the state (or its agencies) or any county, municipal corporation, regional transit authority, or other governmental entity created under state law that owns a sending site.

6. “Governmental restriction” means any law, regulation, or policy governing the surplus, sale, or transfer of a governmental owner’s interests in real property.

7. “Incentive” means the increased floor area, and related off-street parking reductions, available to a receiving site through a certificate of TDR receipt used in compliance with this section.

8. “Receiving sites” are certain lots that are benefitted by a transfer of development rights from a sending site as evidenced by a certificate of TDR receipt. A sending site may also be a receiving site so long as the requirements of subsection D of this section are met.

9. “Sending sites” are those certain lots that are eligible to transfer development rights to a receiving site pursuant to this chapter.

10. “TDR covenant” is a recorded document signed by the owner of the sending site and the director that evidences a severance of development rights appurtenant to the sending site.

1. Land is eligible for participation in the TDR program as a sending site if included in Figure 12.48.180.C, Eligible Sending Sites, and in compliance with all criteria in subsection (C)(2) of this section.

2. The following criteria must also be met:

1. Owners of lots depicted on Figure 12.48.180.D, Eligible Receiving Sites, are eligible to apply to the city for participation in the TDR program to obtain development rights as a receiving site. All prospective receiving sites must comply with the provisions in subsection (D)(2) of this section and any other eligibility criteria that may be established by the Director from time to time.

2. Except as may otherwise be provided by the incentives discussed in subsection I of this section, development of a receiving site shall remain subject to all applicable development regulations of the Bothell Municipal Code.

1. Provided that compliance with the dimensional requirements contained in Table 12.48.130 is achieved and maintained (except in the case of a development permitted to transfer development rights pursuant to BMC 12.48.140(B)(3)), the owner of a sending site is entitled to transfer or sell development rights to the owner of a receiving site, in increments of 1,000 square feet of floor area, for each 1,000 square feet of floor area that was allowed to be developed, but was not used, in the development of the sending site. Fractional transfers of less than 1,000 square feet of floor area are not allowed.

2. Development rights available for transfer from a sending site shall be calculated as follows:

1. Prior to the recording of a TDR covenant, or any transfer or sale of any development rights, the owner of a sending site must file an application with the city for the issuance of a certificate of TDR availability. The director shall establish the submittal requirements necessary for the application and any required application forms. If the owner of a sending site enters into an interlocal agreement with the city as provided in subsection (C)(2)(e) of this section, it shall not be required to comply with this subsection.

2. The director will verify ownership and eligibility of the sending site and will calculate the quantity of development rights available for transfer in accordance with subsection E of this section. The director’s review and issuance of a certificate of TDR availability shall be a ministerial, Type I process under Title 11 BMC.

3. The director will issue the owner of the sending site a certificate of TDR availability stating the quantity of development rights the sending site is eligible to transfer.

4. A sending site for which the city has issued a certificate of TDR availability shall be limited to development consistent with the purpose and intent of this section and with the criteria originally used as the basis for issuing the sending site a certificate of TDR availability. Failure to use the sending site in a manner consistent with the original certification may result in the city, at the discretion of the director, refusing to sign a TDR covenant.

5. The certificate of TDR availability shall terminate when whichever of the following occurs first:

1. To complete a severance of development rights from a sending site, the director must have previously issued a certificate of TDR availability for the sending site. So long as the owner of the sending site is in possession of a valid certificate of TDR availability, when the owner of the sending site is prepared to sever development rights from a sending site, it shall execute, and the director shall be required to execute and record in the real property records of the county where the sending site is located, a TDR covenant to sever the development rights from the sending site.

2. The TDR covenant shall indicate the development rights to be formally severed from the sending site, measured in thousands of square feet, in accordance with the restrictions of subsection (E)(1) of this section, and any restrictions conditioning the use of the development rights (including without limitation any applicable governmental restriction).

3. Any receiving site obtaining a transfer of development rights shall be issued a certificate of TDR receipt by the director, which shall be signed and acknowledged by the owners of both the sending site and the receiving site. The certificate of TDR receipt shall state the quantity of development rights granted to the receiving site, any restrictions conditioning the receiving site owner’s use of the development rights granted therein (including without limitation any applicable governmental restriction), and shall be recorded in the real property records of the county where the sending site and the receiving site are located.

4. With the consent of the director, a certificate of TDR receipt held by the owner of a receiving site may be transferred one or more times to other eligible receiving sites. The director’s consent shall be withheld only where the development rights to be transferred have been used completely by the receiving site, the prospective receiving site is ineligible as described in subsection D of this section, or where otherwise necessary to ensure compliance with this section. Any transfer of a certificate of TDR receipt shall be acknowledged by the transferor, the transferee, and the city and shall be recorded in the real property records of the county where the transferor and transferee receiving sites are located.

5. A building permit application submitted by the owner of a receiving site desiring to use development rights transferred under this section shall contain a statement describing the amount of transferred development rights proposed to be used, how the development rights are proposed to be used, and how the use of transferred development rights meets the city’s development standards and goals under the Canyon Park Subarea Plan.

6. Applicants are not required to own or control a certificate of TDR receipt at the time of applying for a discretionary land use approval. Any vested rights to which the applicant is entitled under state law shall not be affected by the presence or absence of a certificate of TDR receipt at the time a complete application is submitted. Instead, the city shall condition any discretionary land use approval on the applicant’s receipt of all required development rights for the applicant’s project prior to the city’s issuance of any ministerial permits for the receiving site.

7. The city shall maintain a registry documenting the ownership history of all transferable development rights by serial number from when they are severed from the sending site to their use on a receiving site.

1. Upon the recording of a TDR covenant, the minimum FAR and the maximum base FAR under BMC 12.48.130 for the sending site shall be decreased by the amount development rights listed in the TDR covenant.

2. The owner of a sending site upon which a TDR covenant has been recorded shall not undertake any division, subdivision, or partitioning of the sending site, whether by physical or legal process, which includes, but is not limited to, any subdivision, short subdivision, platting, binding site plan, testamentary division, or other process by which the property is divided into lots or in which title to different portions of the sending site are not held in unified ownership, unless such land division allocates development restrictions between the divided parcels of property in a manner consistent with the terms of the TDR covenant and is approved of the director in their reasonable discretion.

3. The owner of a sending site upon which a TDR covenant has been recorded may elect to use some or all of the development rights previously severed from the sending site so long as the TDR covenant is formally amended or released in a recorded document signed by the owner of the sending site and the director. The director shall execute any such amendment or release requested by the owner of the sending site, so long as all of the development rights previously severed from the sending site have not been transferred or sold to another receiving site and the previously-severed development rights are needed to complete the construction of additional floor area on the sending site.

1. A certificate of TDR receipt held by the owner of a receiving site may be used, subject to the limitations of this section and other requirements in the Bothell Municipal Code, as authorization to construct additional commercial and residential floor area in exceedance of the maximum base FAR allowed on the receiving site under BMC 12.48.130, up to and including the square footage of floor area represented on the certificate(s) of TDR receipt to be used.

2. Additional floor area authorized via a certificate of TDR receipt that exceeds maximum base FAR defined in Table 12.48.130 is exempted from providing the required minimum off-street parking spaces for this additional floor area as defined in Table 12.48.250. This exemption shall apply proportionately for the parking requirements for each use in the entire development provided under Table 12.48.250. (Ord. 2398 § 1, 2023; Ord. 2341 § 5 (Exh. A), 2020).