Bensalem, PA Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Density Bonus Law (2026)

Section 232-765(a) establishes the Township's transferable development rights program under subsections 603(c)(2.2), 605(4), and 619.1 of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, designating specific historic and agricultural parcels as the sending area and the Bensalem 2018 Regulating Code Overlay District as the receiving area. Section 232-765(b)(1) frames the transfer as a voluntary sale between a willing buyer and willing seller, with the development rights treated as a separate estate in land that runs with whatever receiving-area parcel it attaches to once transferred. The density payoff sits in subsection (b)(2): a purchaser who attaches purchased development rights to a tract of land is permitted to develop that tract within the receiving area with an increase in density, on terms set out in subsection (d).

In exchange, the seller receives payment and keeps the land under a deed restriction against future development, recorded against the property under Section 232-765(c). Section 232-765(d) apportions TDR credits to eligible sending-area lots, historic properties listed in Appendix A and Regulating Code Overlay parcels in Appendix B, based on the tract's net buildable area, with credit value subject to Township adjustment and an administrative fee split between buyer and seller. Section 232-765(d)(3) excludes lots that have already sold their rights, are under a Bucks County farmland preservation easement, or sit within a transit-oriented development district.

The program only increases density on the receiving-area side; a seller's land is permanently restricted from further development once its rights are sold, and Section 232-765(c) reserves the Township's right to end the entire program at any time.