City-led development-rights purchases make the plan. The price is still TBD.

Chattahoochee Hills’ adopted comprehensive plan puts city-led purchases of development rights on its 2027–28 work schedule. The aim is to “kick-start” a conservation program that has struggled to attract buyers—but the purchase program’s estimated cost is still listed as “TBD.”⁠[1]

Transfer of Development Rights, or TDR, lets landowners voluntarily sell development rights while preserving their property. Buyers can use those rights to build at greater density in designated growth areas. The plan identifies the problem: development sufficient to create demand for those rights has not materialized, leaving conservation activity below what was originally envisioned.⁠[1]

We previously reported the draft’s call for city-led purchases. That initiative is retained in the adopted plan, alongside work with the Chattahoochee Hill Country Conservancy on a TDR strategy, also scheduled for 2027–28. Draft minutes dated October 6 record Council’s unanimous approval of the comprehensive plan, Item 26-045, with changes and recommendations.⁠[1][2]

The plan lists the General Fund and grants as funding sources for purchases. Those entries are not a dollar commitment: the work-program row supplies neither a purchase budget nor specific properties or prices. The schedule alone does not establish that money has been appropriated or purchases have begun.⁠[1]

There is already a partnership milestone. The plan marks an earlier task to strengthen TDR with the Conservancy as completed because a memorandum of understanding is in place. But that completed coordination task is distinct from the future purchase initiative—and from creating the market demand the plan says has been missing.⁠[1]