Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

What would a postcarbon future look like? How would a more just, decarbonized world require us to change the way we live? What would it take to build this world? These questions lie at the heart of Building Postcarbon Futures: Land, Justice, and the Energy Transition.

This book offers a comprehensive account of the myriad ways in which people are transforming their social, ecological, and economic systems to create more just, beautiful places in response to the climate crisis.  With contributions from more than a dozen leading scholars of climate justice, Building Postcarbon Futures takes readers through 30 exemplary works of climate justice spanning 43 nations and 6 continents. Together, these illustrated case studies foreground the often-overlooked tactics, strategies, and modes of practice being employed, often by marginalized peoples, to build a more just, decarbonized world—from Cuba to Kiribati.

Building Postcarbon Futures is both a celebration of action underway and a challenge to those tasked with bringing new works of climate justice into the built and natural environments—the planners, designers, policymakers, and activists pushing this planet toward a future of collective flourishing.

En este informe, se brinda información nueva y actualizada sobre las colaboraciones actuales en el ámbito de las políticas entre los fideicomisos comunitarios de tierras (CLT, por su sigla en inglés), las ciudades, los condados y los estados que trabajan para abordar la crisis de asequibilidad de vivienda. A partir de su propia experiencia, y en combinación con los aportes de más de 115 profesionales de CLT y otros expertos de todo el país, los autores identifican tendencias relevantes en relación con estos fideicomisos y comparten ejemplos de asociaciones innovadoras y efectivas. Además, ofrecen una serie de recomendaciones basadas en evidencia para los profesionales y los responsables de las políticas que desean hallar nuevas formas de lograr que la vivienda propia sea más asequible y accesible.

​This Spanish language report provides new and updated information about current policy collaborations among community land trusts (CLT), cities, counties, and states working to address the housing affordability crisis. Combining their own expertise with input provided by more than 115 CLT practitioners and other experts across the country, the authors identify significant trends in the community land trust landscape, share examples of innovative and effective partnerships, and offer a series of evidence-based recommendations for policy makers and practitioners who want to find new ways to make homeownership more affordable and accessible.

About the Authors
John Emmeus Davis is a city planner who has spent much of his 40-year career providing technical assistance to CLTs. He is a partner at Burlington Associates in Community Development LLC, a national consulting cooperative, and a founding board member of the International Center for CLTs.
Kristin King-Ries is an attorney whose practice is focused on creating and stewarding permanently affordable homes and farms for people priced out of the traditional real estate market. She previously served as general counsel for Trust Montana from 2017 to 2021.

 

From assessments to zoning, state and local leaders can create meaningful change for and with their communities through the effective use, taxation, and stewardship of land. Designed for policymakers, planners and practitioners, community leaders, and others, this guidebook offers an array of practical and proven land policy strategies and solutions. Tap into the Lincoln Institute’s more than 75 years of research, richly detailed data resources, and innovative work on the ground to discover how strategic land policy decisions can improve educational outcomes, provide public health benefits, increase municipal revenue, and help build more equitable and sustainable places for all. This compendium includes case studies of communities in the US and around the world that have successfully used the land policy tools in its pages; policy recommendations grounded in research; and actionable advice.
 
About the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
A nonprofit private operating foundation whose origins date to 1946, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy researches and recommends creative approaches to land as a solution to economic, social, and environmental challenges. Through education, training, publications, and events, we integrate theory and practice to inform public policy decisions worldwide.

This volume from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a global authority on the property tax, offers the first comparative analysis of property tax systems across Europe. With in-depth case studies from more than a dozen countries, Property Tax in Europe spotlights examples and lessons that have international applicability, including successful institutional transitions, use of the property tax as a land policy instrument, and innovative technological applications. Property Tax in Europe is the third title in a series on international property taxation, following Property Tax in Africa: Status, Challenges, and Prospects (2017) and Property Tax in Asia: Policy and Practice (2022). Featured countries include Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, Russia, Slovenia, and Spain.

About the Editors
Riël Franzsen holds the South African Research Chair in Tax Policy and Governance and is the director of the African Tax Institute at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Roy Bahl is Emeritus Regents Professor of Economics and founding dean of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. He is Extraordinary Professor of economics in the African Tax Institute at the University of Pretoria.
William McCluskey is Extraordinary Professor in the African Tax Institute at the University of Pretoria.

This second edition of Sistemas del impuesto predial presents new data, lessons, and challenges related to property tax systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. The completely updated text discusses the current state of legal frameworks, administrative practices, and emerging trends in the 9 countries included in the first edition—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, and Uruguay—and includes four new chapters exploring property taxation in Bolivia, Mexico, Panama, and Paraguay.
 
Esta segunda edición de Sistemas del impuesto predial presenta información, lecciones, y desafíos nuevos relacionados con los sistemas del impuesto predial en América Latina y el Caribe. El texto, el cual ha sido completamente actualizado, discute el estado legal actual, las prácticas administrativas y las tendencias emergentes en los nueve países incluidos en la primera edición —Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Perú y Uruguay— e incluye cuatro nuevos capítulos explorando el impuesto predial en Bolivia, México, Panamá y Paraguay. 

This report focuses on the roles of the local property tax and state aid in the funding of public education and analyzes their strengths and weaknesses. A key theme is the property tax-school funding dilemma--the challenge of overcoming the shortcomings of both the local property tax and state aid in a way that assures that state school funding systems can finance an adequate education for all students in an equitable and efficient manner.
Case studies of five states (California, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin) illustrate the complexities of the dilemma. The report concludes with 11 recommendations. Some recommendations focus on ways to make the local property tax more equitable and efficient; others suggest ways to improve state aid for K-12 education. A final recommendation argues for an expansion of federal education aid to assist low-income states and to address learning loss arising from the COVID19 pandemic.

Concentrated in nine western states, 42 million acres of state trust land represent an important public resource. Trust land managers, responsible for upholding the fiduciary purpose of these lands for the designated beneficiaries—primarily K-12 public schools—must actively and deliberately take advantage of opportunities to generate revenues while ensuring the long-term sustainability of the trust. This policy focus report offers an overview of the history and unique aspects of state trust lands and presents examples of new management strategies and tools that focus on asset management, residential and commercial development, conservation use, and collaborative planning.

“Alan Mallach examines the crucial relationships between states and their constituent cities, illustrates how states have hindered equitable revitalization, and offers principles to guide state policy reform with an intentional focus on racial equity—namely, how urban revitalization can benefit low-income residents and communities of color, not just elites and commuters. . . . Mallach lays out successful strategies for public lead­ers to become true partners in bringing about inclusive, equitable revitalization through state policy.”

—Akilah Watkins, President and CEO, Center for Community Progress

Note: This publication is now available for preorder and will be published February 2022.
As communities worldwide make protecting the climate a priority, land trusts and conservancies of all sizes and capac­ities are seeking greater clarity in how to address climate change through land conservation and stewardship. Policy makers and decision makers are considering how to address climate-related impacts in communities, states, and regions. Funders and donors are seeking to invest in projects and initiatives which offer durable, lasting solutions for reducing carbon emissions and improving climate resilience.
This report—written by James Levitt, a global expert and educator in land conservation, and Chandni Navalkha, an international leader in sustainable management of land and water resources—offers numerous case examples of successful initiatives along with the following guidance for stakeholders in the private and public sectors looking to boost the potential of civic organizations to implement natural climate solutions:
Empower civic-sector initiatives that are creative and ambitious in scope and scale.Invest in initiatives with clear strategies and measurable impact.Aim for broad collaborations.Share advanced science, technologies, and financial engineering techniques.Support initiatives that are built to last, able to adapt, and ready to replicate.

“Currently no other published document outlines so clearly how land use planners and water managers can come together in practicum to better coordinate.”

— Danielle Gallet, Founding Principal + Water Strategist, Waterwell, LLC

Land without water cannot support urban form of any scale, yet many land use decisions are made without regard to water, and vice versa. This report introduces readers to best management practices that enable local governments and water providers to integrate the two systems. Supported by case studies from several U.S. communities, the report demonstrates that planning is a crucial step for land and water integration.

“Integrating Land Use and Water Management is relevant, informative, and necessary at this moment in time. In the age of specialization, we have created many silos. As problems with the urban water cycle become more complex and multidimensional, collaboration with other disciplinary experts is needed. This report provides a practical bridge to facilitate collaboration between land use planners and water management.” 

— Chi Ho Sham, Ph.D., Vice President and Chief Scientist of Eastern Research Group, Inc.; President-elect of the American Water Works Association (2020–2021)

This report is the go-to resource on the options that U.S. states have to provide property tax relief for homeowners without compromising municipal fiscal health or services. Policy makers frequently face political pressure to reduce property taxes, but many approaches undercut the success of adopted policies. The authors present the pros and cons of measures that can effectively provide relief without undermining the property tax system. By covering the full range of policies, this report is relevant in practically any state policy debate about property tax relief.

This report will be an essential resource for state legislators, governors, students of public finance, and policy makers who help make decisions about property tax relief.

Sustainably built and funded infrastructure is indispensable to resilient, equitable, and livable communities and regions worldwide. In this rare comparison of infrastructure across countries and sectors, leading international academics and practitioners consider the latest approaches to infrastructure policy, implementation, and finance. Chapters cover land value capture and other funding mechanisms; the role of infrastructure in urban form, economic performance, and quality of life, especially for disinvested communities; and other essential concepts, economic theories, and policy considerations.

The book presents evidence-based solutions and policy considerations for officials in government agencies and private companies that oversee infrastructure services; essential concepts and economic theories for students of infrastructure, planning, and public policy; and a current overview for policy-oriented lay readers.

This contributed volume showcases the first comprehensive assessment of the property tax in Asia, including China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam. It provides authoritative data on legislation, tax administration practices, revenue statistics, reform proposals, new technology, and political debate to raise awareness of the potential for land-based revenue throughout these regions. 
This volume is essential for advisors on tax reform and implementation; academics, teachers, and researchers in public finance; national ministries of finance and local government; and universities and libraries.

“[This] visionary book provides a high-level map that charts a path through a set of daunting challenges, imagining step-by-step the choreography of reconfiguring, and thereby renewing, the landscape of great swaths of the country. And it suggests how, based on our experience as a nation in extricating ourselves from previous difficulties, we can experiment our way through necessary changes and develop the necessary institutional structures to implement them.”
— Journal of the American Planning Association

Megaregions can help the United States contend with its mega-challenges. With shared economies, natural resource systems, infrastructure, history, and culture, these linked networks of metropolitan areas and their hinterlands—such as the Southwestern Sun Corridor or Great Lakes—can strengthen climate resilience, natural resource management, economic competitiveness, and equity at the local, regional, and national levels in the United States.  
This source book provides updated demographic, economic, and environmental information on U.S. megaregions for urban and regional planners, policy makers, academics, and decision makers in transportation, environmental protection, and development agencies. The book reviews the origins of the megaregion concept and the economic, ecological, demographic, and political dynamics. Readers will understand trends, processes, and innovative practices within and between megaregions and identify the most pressing challenges that demand strategic decisions and actions.

This report illustrates how local governments can realize the full benefits of inclusionary housing policies, which require developers of new market-rate real estate to provide some affordable units for lower-income residents. Policy makers, practitioners, and local leaders will learn how to build public support, use data to inform program design, establish reasonable expectations for developers, and ensure long-term program quality.

Whatever the political potential of land value taxation as an important revenue source may be, economists continue to be intrigued by the theoretical case for a land tax. This collection of eight scholarly papers and ten commentaries is derived from a 1998 Lincoln Institute conference that explored land value taxation in contemporary societies.

Experts in urban and regional planning, political science, economics, and related fields look at issues such as economic interdependencies, global competitiveness, and intergovernmental relationships to address how cities and their suburbs are dependent on each other. The chapters consider possible avenues for effective regional policies. They are based on papers presented at a 1998 conference cosponsored by the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Lincoln Institute, and the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy.

Leasehold systems offer a flexible form of land tenure that can be designed to provide an ongoing stream of revenue to finance public infrastructure. Leasing public land has long been advocated as a viable land tenure option for former socialist countries and other transitional economies. However, the debate about land tenure has been influenced more by ideology and preconceptions than by careful study of existing leasehold systems. This book examines such systems and presents recommendations for their future role.

Great effort has been devoted to the precise delineation and assignment of the legal and physical boundaries of private property. Yet, issues of unifying or assembling private property rights for urban redevelopment remain understudied. The contributors to this book search for viable alternatives to voluntary exchange or public intervention in the form of expropriation, and propose one possibility: land readjustment. The authors explore the international possibilities for facilitating cooperative land readjustment and the circumstances under which this should be possible. The book is divided into sections that focus on international legal issues, social and cultural issues, and new experiments with urban renewal and redevelopment.

This policy focus report examines options that exist for timely and efficient aid to needy taxpayers, including circuit breaker programs that reduce taxes based on income level; truth in taxation measures; deferral options on property tax payments; partial exemptions on owner-occupied or homestead properties; and classified tax rates.

This policy focus report complements a larger volume that compares four states with smart growth programs (Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, and Oregon) and four other states without such programs (Colorado, Indiana, Texas, and Virginia). The analysis reveals that programs vary greatly across the four smart growth states, producing a range of outcomes that overlap with some of those in the other states.

The chapters in this volume examine the effect large landowners or institutions have on local land markets and the tensions that can arise between public and private interests. In the United States the large tracts of land held by private owners are often situated on the fringes of metropolitan areas. Frequently this land is in transition from agricultural to urban uses, and represents a source of income or a legacy for the next generation. Many universities and other non-profit institutions own large parcels of land and have a bargaining advantage in town-gown issues due to their contribution to the urban economy. 

In Nigeria, like much of Africa, a considerable portion of land is held privately, albeit communally. Land ownership and land supply decisions have more to do with family or clan marriages than with the logic of city building. 

This book, a result of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy's September 2006 conference, brings together experts who address the following land policy questions.
What happens when one owner or one institution has significant control over the local land market?How do the actions of individual landowners affect our capacity to create cities that work for all?How well can these individual actors balance the competing interests of those living in neighborhoods, towns, cities, and regions?
Despite the tensions that can arise between the stakeholders during the development process, the tensions are not the problem. Rather, they are the challenge and the opportunity to collectively shape our cities.

This report—the precursor to Planet of Cities—​provides policy makers and planners with a conceptual framework for understanding urban expansion and provides research-based suggestions for how to prepare for the sustainable growth of cities in the coming decades.

The data, images, metrics, and methodology from Making Room for a Planet of Cities are available in an accompanying subcenter, the Atlas of Urban Expansion. 

This book examines the Canadian province of Ontario's 1998 attempt to reform its property tax laws and provides strategies—such as restructuring education finance and introducing a new form of business taxation, at both the provincial and local levels—to help policy makers design a better future.

State and local governments use many types of property tax incentives to increase business development. This report reviews those incentives, summarizes the literature regarding their effectiveness, and makes recommendations for reforming their use to help policy makers and local government officials improve the odds of achieving their development goals.

Published in collaboration with the Consensus Building Institute, this book calls for a mutual gains approach to land disputes. The authors detail techniques that allow stakeholders with conflicting interests to collaborate, voice concerns constructively, and reach successful agreements that benefit all parties involved in zoning, planning, and development. 

This report presents two case studies and a handbook on the process of overcoming political obstacles to build a consensus for affordable housing. In spite of greater public awareness about the need for affordable housing, local officials, citizens, and developers can learn about the difficulties of implementing new housing in their communities and the benefits of various mediation techniques to meet those challenges.

This report, spurred by the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, identifies a set of policies, regulations, and administrative practices that federal agencies can adopt to help coastal metropolitan regions recover quickly from natural disasters and reduce future risk in the face of climate change and rising sea levels. 

Deregulation signaled a new environment for the taxation of public utility property in the U.S. This book of formal papers and commentaries from a 1999 Lincoln Institute seminar brings together varying perspectives on the taxation of deregulated electric utility facilities and considers the impacts of deregulation on these properties.

Attempts at introducing land value taxation in the United Kingdom demonstrate a long and varied history. This book considers this history and how the tax is particularly relevant today. It explores past debates over different forms of the tax, its role in generating government revenue, its practical operation, and its future prospects in Britain and elsewhere.

This report summarizes what was learned from a workshop held in a tribal area of Limpopo Province, which sought to assist local residents in identifying land attributes that affect the relative desirability of different plots, and to apply those criteria to selected plots as a step toward developing taxable values that are reasonable proxies for market value. Although the focus here is on South Africa, the approach and lessons learned have broader applications in other developing and transitional countries where a modern, mature property tax based on market values is not feasible.

En América Latina, las políticas fiscales e instrumentos convencionales ignoran, en gran medida, cómo las inversiones públicas en infraestructura y servicios urbanos benefician a los propietarios privados, resultando en valores de suelo que se distribuyen de manera desigual entre propietarios y otros interesados. El objetivo de la recuperación de plusvalías es transformar estas plusvalías en ingresos públicos. El presente informe incluye una breve reseña de los antecedentes de la recuperación de plusvalías en América Latina e ilustra su presencia de larga duración en la agenda del urbanismo. El autor examina una variedad de instrumentos en municipios de la región bajo tres categorías: tributación inmobiliaria y contribución de mejoras; cargas y cobros del derecho de construir o transferencia de derechos de desarrollo; y enfoques a gran escala, tales como el desarrollo de suelo público a través de la privatización o adquisición, reajuste de suelo, y subastas públicas de bonos para comprar derechos de edificar.

In June 2006 the Lincoln Institute held the first in a series of land policy conferences to address international trends and issues. The goals of this conference were to raise awareness of the importance of land policy in shaping international urban development and to explore research topics in urban economics and planning that might have significant policy implications. The chapters are based on the conference proceedings, papers, and commentaries of scholars and practitioners, and are divided into five themes: public actions and property prices; the importance of land value in today’s economy; land and property taxation; urban development and revitalization; and new developments in land and housing markets.

This book will assist urban professionals, public sector leaders, and the public to navigate two complex and evolving fields: public involvement and digital visualization as applied to planning. It suggests ways that digital visualization tools can be integrated in a public process to present participants with clear choices and help them make informed planning decisions. Based on the authors’ experiences in developing sophisticated public involvement processes and applying 3D GIS-based simulation and visualization tools to planning and design, the book features more than 100 color illustrations and case studies of four communities: Santa Fe, Houston, Kona (Hawaii), and Baltimore. 

The authors examine of the personalities, controversies, and compromises that have created zoning districts in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco. They share fascinating insights into the benefits and problems associated with this unique regulatory tool.

Use-value assessment (UVA) is the practice of valuing rural land according to its current use rather than its market value to reduce property taxes for rural land owners in the United States. This tax preference amounts to tens of billions of dollars annually.
Originally created to slow the loss of farms, ranches, and forestland caused by urbanization, the reality is that UVA is a blunt policy instrument that provides tax benefits to all eligible landowners, with very little impact on the number of acres being developed. UVA undermines the integrity of the property tax system as a mechanism to fund local public goods and services. Eligibility requirements are often lax, withdrawal penalties are mild or nonexistent, and assessment methods are subject to biased manipulation. Fundamentally, UVA programs are not fulfilling their intended purposes.
This report describes the history and design features of state UVA programs, explains the theoretical underpinnings of land valuation, and surveys empirical studies of UVA implementation and impacts.
It also identifies the weaknesses of UVA programs and proposes the following set of policy reforms to make the programs more effective and fair:
Design eligibility rules to ensure that only parcels serving UVA statutory goals can participate.Adopt state guidelines for assessors that provide accurate UVA estimation methods.Create appropriate penalty provisions for land removed from rural or agricultural use.Restructure UVA programs to reduce tax inequities and provide valuable benefits to society as a whole.This report was preceded by the book Use-Value Assessment of Rural Land in the United States, published in 2014.

The property tax is unpopular among both scholars and taxpayers, yet many scholars have proposed ideas to rehabilitate this tax and its role in local public finance. Based on a 2000 Lincoln Institute conference, this book reviews the economics of local property taxation and examines its policy implications. The chapters are written in a nontechnical form for policy makers and other noneconomists.

This collection of essays examines underutilized, abandoned, and vacant urban land within political, economic, institutional, and policy contexts. The 11 chapters raise the essential questions: Is vacant land an opportunity or an obstacle? Are brownfields a legacy of prior industrial wealth, or of illegal and dangerous contamination? Is a land inventory vital to community needs for future growth, or the symbol of political shortsightedness? Is the reclamation of land the first step in an urban turnaround, or a giveaway of local assets?

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy collaborated with 14 leading land use researchers and planners to measure and compare outcomes in four states with statewide smart growth programs (Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, and Oregon) and four states without such programs (Colorado, Indiana, Texas, and Virginia).

As land use issues become more complex, public officials must work harder to balance the contending forces of environmental protection, economic development, and local autonomy. This guidebook, developed by the Consensus Building Institute, offers step-by-step advice on assisted negotiation based on a study of 100 local land use disputes. It addresses why and how to use assisted negotiation, the risks and preparations involved, and issues in hiring a professional mediator or facilitator.

This book commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Charles Tiebout’s enormously influential article, “A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures,” and honors the contributions of Wallace Oates as expositor and popularizer of the Tiebout model. While Tiebout holds the patent on the hypothesis, Oates brought the product to market. Based on a conference cosponsored by the Lincoln Institute and the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and Social Studies at Dartmouth College in June 2005, this collection of scholarly articles evaluates the Tiebout model’s influence on the disciplines of economics, law, and political science, and assesses future directions for public policy. It addresses such topics as school choice, fiscal federalism, and land use regulation.

Planning for Climate Change in the West offers regional planners techniques for addressing climate change concerns while they focus on issues affecting regional growth.

A warmer and dryer climate in the mountain states along with federal policies to reduce green house gas emissions affects regional planning. The report provides examples how local action does reduce levels of greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption when planners modify building codes, land use policies covering open spaces and forests, water use and transportation routes.

Planning for climate change in the mountain West requires an understanding of barriers created by local political, demographic and cultural conditions. Since there are climate skeptics among politicians and government staff in the intermountain west, the report identifies strategies to use when developing land and designing buildings that lessen the impact on climate change.

This Policy Focus Report acknowledges the critical role of local planners in confronting challenges posed by climate change. Local officials engaged in planning for climate change must focus on the economic savings of mitigating and adapting to climate change as they tailor federal and state efforts to suit local and regional needs. Managing regional growth by focusing on effective water management, energy generation and transportation management leads to sustainable communities. Buildings which conserve energy, reduce water needs and are located near regional transportation help local governments and consumers save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the mountain west.

The report includes a survey of government staff and elected officials in the Intermountain West indicating skepticism about climate change. Accordingly, Western planners are emphasizing sustainability or economic efficiency, rather than climate change, in their decisions to manage water supplies, reduce energy consumption, increase transportation efficiency, and protect open space.

Planning for Climate Change in the West was a product of the joint venture partnership of the Lincoln Institute and the Sonoran Institute, now called Western Lands and Communities.

The European Spatial Development Perspective was adopted in 1999 after more than 10 years of transnational networking across linguistic and cultural divides. However, Europe’s engagement in spatial planning has escaped the attention of many North American and even European planners. Based on a 2001 Lincoln Institute conference, this book provides lessons for those interested in spatial planning, theory, and practice.
Includes a full-color insert of 21 maps.

This heavily illustrated best seller provides students and experienced planners with tools and examples to help communities prepare for uncertain futures. It explains how to utilize forecasts, scenarios, plans, and projects to represent, manipulate, and assess ideas to make more informed decisions and create a better future. 

Based on the proceedings of Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s fourth annual cross-disciplinary land policy conference, this volume collects scholarly work by a wide range of experts in land policy, tax policy, economics, and urban planning.

Municipal Revenues and Land Policies offers analysis of a variety of municipal revenue instruments such as intergovernmental transfers, property tax, tax increment financing, and local option sales and income taxes. Other nontraditional public good financing mechanisms including business improvement districts, homeowners' associations, impact fees, certificates of additional construction potential, debt financing, and public-private partnerships are examined. The analysis focuses on comparing the viability of these municipal revenue sources in the face of fiscal uncertainty. 

No recent happening in land conservation rivals the rapid expansion of conservation easements and the related growth in the number of land trusts over the past 15 years. Among the forces driving this phenomenon are tax and other public subsidies and the view that the conservation easement is a win-win strategy in land protection. The thesis of this policy focus report is that conservation easements are a valuable land protection tool, complementing regulation, land acquisition, and tax policies, but that reforms are needed in tax and other laws and conventions governing easements, lest we risk losing the public benefits for which the easements were established.

A conference co-hosted by the Lincoln Institute and the International Center for Land Policy Studies and Training (ICLPST) in Taiwan in October 2006 explored land-related topics that would be important between the present time and the year 2015, the target date to which United Nations member states have agreed for a set of Millennium Development Goals. This book compiles the conference proceedings and alerts policy and decision makers to the changing circumstances of how society views, values, and uses land. Technology is changing the way land is now managed and used; and the evidence of improvements in land records, agricultural technology, estimation of land values, and dissemination of information about land use is encouraging. Worth considering are the suggestions to examine land decisions within a framework of sustainable development, particularly regarding the sustainability of food supplies.

Great natural disasters are rare, but their aftermath can change the fortunes of a city or region forever. This book and its companion Policy Focus Report identify lessons from different parts of the world to help communities and government leaders better organize for recovery after future disasters. The authors consider the processes and outcomes of community recovery and reconstruction following major disasters in six countries: China, New Zealand, India, Indonesia, Japan, and the United States. If done well, reconstruction can help break the cycle of disaster-related impacts and losses, and improve the resilience of a city or region. 

In this second book in a series on European spatial planning, the authors examine territorial cohesion as a successor concept to the European Spatial Development Perspective. Fundamental ideas about Europe and its distinct “model of society” lie behind the concept of territorial cohesion, which can be understood as a goal of spatial equity that tends to favor development-in-place over selective migration to locations of greater opportunity. This approach contrasts with an American social model that views the equity principle behind territorial cohesion to be diametrically opposed to the efficiency principle based on free mobility of labor.

This best seller for regional planners introduces the foundations and applications of their practice in the United States. It offers guidance and inspiration to help professionals and students understand local issues in a regional and global context, define planning regions based on functional problems, and collaborate across regions as never before to advance sustainability and improve quality of life. 

Editor Richard K. Brail has brought together the wisest of the field’s thinkers, the most inventive of the toolmakers, the most experienced of those working at the interface with real clients, and the most battle-seasoned practicing planners (and many of these individuals occupy more than one of these niches). Together they present a broad view of support systems, in-depth developmental histories of the most important models and tools as told by their creators, and a provocative, in-the-trenches critique of the state of the art.

This book reports on national, state, and local responses to climate-related risks of sea level rise and storm surge, drought and water shortage, floods, wildfires, and heat waves in nine coastal city regions: New York City, the Southeastern states, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in the United States; and Melbourne, Sydney, South East Queensland, and Perth in Australia. 

The Lincoln Institute’s third annual land policy conference explored the connections between property rights and land policies in developed and developing country contexts. The chapter authors discuss a range of topics including regulatory takings, the use of eminent domain and expropriation in land assembly, the emergence of private property rights in transition economies, marketable emission permits, natural resource management, and the impacts of tenure choice on land and housing development.

This third volume in a series of investigations of spatial planning, research, and policy in Europe taps into the treasure trove of research that is ESPON, the European Spatial Planning Observation Network, which has yielded a plethora of studies on the real and anticipated outcomes of European territorial policy. The chapters provide a comprehensive view of how the search for evidence to support the agenda of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP)—now the Territorial Agenda—has proceeded, what the evidence and implications have been, and what other conclusions could have been drawn. The authors demonstrate that a learning exercise like ESPON can contribute to shaping a political agenda, which could serve as a source of inspiration for fellow planners across the Atlantic. Includes more than 20 color maps and other figures

The recent boom and bust in house prices generated widespread fallout, affecting metropolitan areas across the country. But the extent of the damage varied widely, suggesting that local market conditions also played an important role in determining how the crisis played out. As a result, national aggregates were an unreliable guide to both housing performance and the design of policies to mitigate the crisis.

Based on their recent research for the Lincoln Institute, James R. Follain and Seth H. Giertz document how econometric models can be used to address some of the complex issues that have arisen since the house price bust. In particular, these models provide valuable insights into the interrelationships between house price patterns and their drivers—including new drivers that changed the fundamental dynamics of housing markets, such as the size of the distressed real estate inventory, the pace of price appreciation, and the amount of subprime lending.

These changes made policymaking in mid-crisis especially challenging. To illustrate this point, the authors analyze one of the major programs put in place to stem the spread of foreclosures. The Housing Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was developed in 2007 just as the destructive fallout of the crisis began to appear. Traditional tools for measuring and managing the crisis were insufficient. The design of HAMP thus rested upon a number of critical judgments about borrower and lender behavior made without benefit of strong empirical support. While recognizing the challenges of responding to a bust once it has begun, the authors suggest that attempts to deal with any future crises of this type would benefit from certain different design decisions:

• an initial focus on hardest-hit markets to fine-tune program parameters,
• development of longer-term forecasts of house prices for local markets,
• greater efforts to foster more cooperation among all levels of government, and
• fuller recognition of the inherent weaknesses of securitization.

The report then discusses how econometric results can also be used to identify and prevent, or at least limit, the formation of future house price bubbles. Analysts often mention two specific options for combating unsustainable price increases: monetary policy and countercyclical capital policies. Follain and Giertz argue that monetary policy is of limited use in this arena, given that price appreciation varies so widely across local markets. Countercyclical capital buffers—which would raise capital requirements for financial institutions during the initial stages of the price bubble and reduce them during the period of decline—are a much more promising policy direction because they could be designed to put the brakes on only in those markets where bubbles appear to be developing. The growing availability of geographically granular data make this approach to bubble prevention much more viable than in the past.
 

How have California’s local governments coped with the severe revenue restrictions of Prop 13? What effects has the property tax revolution had on urban growth patterns in the state? Has the act produced viable and lasting reform, or was it a tragic mistake? The expert analyses in this ten-year review still have relevance nearly 25 years after Prop 13 was adopted.

The timing of this volume could not be more opportune. Based on the work of Karl “Chip” Case, who is renowned for his scientific contributions to the economics of housing and public policy, chapters analyze risk in the housing market, the regulation of housing markets by government, and other issues in U.S. housing policy. The book investigates derivative markets; the role that home equity insurance can play in reducing risk; the role that the regulation of government-sponsored enterprises has played in extending credit to home purchasers in low-income  neighborhoods; and the growth in the market for subprime mortgages. The impact of local zoning regulations on housing prices and new construction is also considered. This is a must read during a time of restructuring our nation’s system of housing finance.

Once considered enclaves of intellectual pursuit, they now play a much broader role in their neighborhoods and cities. The character of communities near expanding educational institutions drives a need for collaboration between public officials and school administrators.

The evolution of universities increases the impact on real estate, land and economic development in their surrounding community. They have become anchor institutions and key partners in contributing to urban economic and community development.

Universities and colleges impact cities by expanding their student housing, research and facilities, directly influencing neighborhoods and banking land for future use. Through their ability to produce innovation, attract industry, and revitalize their own neighborhoods, they have a direct impact on employment, spending, and workforce development.

The community works to protect its interest in social equity, quality of life in neighborhoods, sustainable development via its planning process and preservation of tax revenues. To meet their expanding missions, institutions often have to reach beyond traditional campus boundaries, and establish more collaborative town–gown relationships. This report describes the economic role of the university, sources of conflict with the community and positive practices in use by successful city-university partnerships.

Based on a review of three dozen municipal programs and interviews with local officials and community land trusts (CLT) practitioners, this report describes how cities are investing in existing CLTs and starting new ones. It teaches community developers the mechanisms, methods, and model practices that are being used to guide urban development and support affordable housing initiatives.

This is the first comprehensive overview of property taxation in post-apartheid South Africa. Presented are the perspectives of researchers who have spent years analyzing the fiscal issues facing South Africa, as well as public finance experts and practitioners from that country. The book enhances understanding of land and building taxation in specific settings and presents a case study of the complex reality of an ever-changing South Africa.

This book reviews the role of the property tax, addresses the reasons behind its poor performance in practice, and critiques the conventional wisdom in academic literature on the subject. It also suggests ways for government officials to achieve greater voter confidence and more robust property tax systems through key policy and administrative reforms.

This book presents tested strategies for regional collaboration across a broad range of issues related to land use, natural resources, and the environment. Practitioners, policy makers, and citizens will find guiding principles, key questions for regional governance, and examples of effective implementation in this informative volume. 

This book reviews the history of China’s land market reforms, evaluates the current situation and presents outlooks for the future in a way that is accessible to a wide audience of decision makers, nongovernmental organizations, and academics. It is one of the few records of this kind available in English. Most of the chapters are based on the proceedings of sessions sponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy at the World Planning Congress held in Shanghai, China in July 2001.

Through an examination of more than 30 countries and several U.S. municipalities that have implemented a land value tax as an alternative to the traditional property tax, this reports helps officials create better tax reform packages for their jurisdictions. The report's recommendations include using best assessing practices, adding a tax credit feature in communities where land-rich but income-poor citizens might suffer from land value taxation, and phasing in dual tax rates over several years.

In the face of increasing complexity and uncertainty, planners, public officials, and community residents need new tools to anticipate and shape the future. Opening Access to Scenario Planning Tools examines the current state of scenario planning and scenario planning tools that can help communities and regions prepare for that future through a variety of visioning, land use, transportation, and other planning efforts. A unique opportunity presents itself to use the best and latest technology to help citizens visualize the future of their cities and regions, so that they might chart a course for sustainable growth.

Decisions about the future are often controversial due to competing economic interests, different cultural values, and divergent views about property rights and the role of government. Broader and more effective civic engagement is needed to ensure community support for decisions about development and other land-related policies, and public investments. The traditional predict-and-plan paradigm is inadequate to address all of these challenges. The authors identify a clear need to develop and implement planning tools and processes that foster anticipation and adaptation.

Three concepts will be critical to the scenario planning and tool-building process: collaboration, capacity building, and creation of an open environment for engagement. Collaborative problem solving facilitates resolution of interrelated issues that cannot be resolved by one organization alone. Capacity building is needed to enable individuals and organizations to apply scenario planning methods and tools effectively to their specific planning concerns. An open environment for information sharing and education will help accelerate the use and improvement of scenario planning tools in multiple settings.

The emergence of new and improved scenario planning tools over the last 10 years offers promise that the use of scenario planning can increase and that the goal of providing open access to the full potential of scenario planning tools is within reach. This report recommends seven immediate actions that could be implemented quickly to facilitate this goal. A group of tool developers, planners, and other users convened by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Sonoran Institute, including the co-authors of this report, are already working to advance these efforts. 

This book by Daniel Cole and Elinor Ostrom, winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics, shows how property rights systems affect the use of scarce natural resources. It is a rich source of information for those involved in conservation, land dispute resolution, land market regulation, public policy, and zoning. 

The study of fiscal decentralization has important policy implications for urban growth management, environmental conservation, and property taxation. Fiscal decentralization gives local governments powers to set local taxes and make local expenditures. In many countries local governments also have powers to regulate land uses within the general guidelines set by higher authorities. An understanding of the degree to which local and provincial governments can exercise these powers, make decisions about their revenues and expenditures, and are held accountable for outcomes is crucial for land policy research and education. Three key themes emerged from a Lincoln Institute conference in June 2007: the extent and effectiveness of local service provision under decentralization; the connections between decentralization and local policies; and the effects of intergovernmental transfers on local fiscal behavior.

This volume tackles a range of ecological issues caused by rapid urban growth in China and examines the policies meant to protect the environment. It features discussions from leading scholars on current regulations, government decentralization and environmental protection, urban development, industrial air pollution, household greenhouse gas emissions, and transportation systems.

This book presents various perspectives on shaping a sustainable urban future for China based on conference discussions of the following questions: What lessons can China learn from other countries through their experiences in combating urban sprawl? What are the “dumb” growth patterns that are economically inefficient, environmentally unfriendly, or socially undesirable in Chinese cities? Finally, to what extent is China’s fragmented planning system responsible for uncoordinated urban growth, and how might it be improved?

More than 50 percent of the global population resides in urban areas where land policy and infrastructure interactions facilitate economic opportunities, affect the quality of life, and influence patterns of urban development. While infrastructure is as old as cities, technological changes and public policies on taxation and regulation produce new issues worthy of analysis, ranging from megaprojects and greenhouse gas emissions to involuntary resettlement. This volume, based on the 2012 seventh annual Land Policy Conference at the Lincoln Institute, brings together economists, social scientists, urban planners, and engineers to discuss how infrastructure issues impact low-, middle-, and high-income countries.

Infrastructure drives economic and social activities. For urban areas, the challenges of balancing economic growth with infrastructure development and maintenance are reflected in debates about finance, regulation, and location and about the sustainable levels of infrastructure services. Relevant sectors include energy (electricity and natural gas); telecommunications (phone lines, mobile phone service, and Internet); transportation (airports, railways, roads, waterways, and seaports); and water supply and sanitation (piped water, irrigation, and sewage collection and treatment).

Recent research shows that inadequate infrastructure is associated with income inequality. This is likely linked to the delivery of infrastructure services to households, such as direct health benefits, improved access to education, and enhanced economic opportunities. Because so much infrastructure is energy intensive, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other negative impacts must address services such as electric power and transport. Bringing the management of infrastructure up to levels of good practice has a large economic payoff, and performance levels vary dramatically between and within countries. A crucial unmet challenge is to convince policy makers and voters that large economic returns can result from improving infrastructure performance and maintenance. 

This comprehensive report offers state trust land managers the latest strategies and tools for asset management, residential and commercial development, conservation use, and collaborative planning. Land managers will learn how to fulfill their trust responsibilities while producing larger revenues for trust beneficiaries, accommodating public interests, and more.

This is a revised edition of a report originally published in 2006.

Land use patterns and urban form can strongly impact an urban community’s contribution to global climate change through the production of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Key contributors to a city’s climate footprint include the physical arrangement of streets and public transportation infrastructure, building types, and land uses that influence both vehicle use and energy consumption in buildings.
City and regional officials now facing new greenhouse gas emissions reduction requirements are increasingly turning to urban design as a key component of climate change mitigation. But implementing an urban planning strategy that includes effective climate change mitigation techniques requires decision support tools that illustrate the GHG implications of land use and transportation options. While a wide spectrum of environmental urban planning tools currently exists, few have the capacity to work simultaneously at both the regional and local scale, or to capture both building performance and transportation demand analysis.
This report reviews existing tools that help urban planners address climate change mitigation, analyzing the tools’ scope, scale, methodology, and policy support, and presents four case studies illustrating how existing tools at various stages of development have been used.

Through hundreds of photographs and maps, landscape architect and urban designer Julie Campoli showcases 12 vibrant North American neighborhoods where residents can live comfortably without a car. By identifying the policies and amenities that foster such streetscapes, Campoli teaches urban developers, decision makers, and students how to create similar communities and help to mitigate climate change by lowering vehicle miles traveled.
 

The economic activity that drives growth in developing countries is heavily concentrated in urban areas. Big cities generate the most dynamic economic development, the strongest links to the global economy, and the resources to help poorer countries become more competitive and prosperous. However, the same advantages that drive investment and growth in these areas also draw migrants who need jobs and housing, lead to demands for better infrastructure and social services, and result in increased congestion, environmental damage, and social problems.

Governments in developing countries face two key challenges: how to capture a share of the economic growth to finance the needed expenditures, and how to manage cities so that the urban economy functions efficiently, services are delivered cost-effectively to all, and citizens have a voice in governing the city.

This report identifies the critical issues and describes current practice, the gap between practice and theory, and potential reform paths. Two core issues are explored: how to manage complex vertical and horizontal urban governance structures, and how to raise the finances to promote efficient, equitable, and sustainable metropolitan growth. The report explores local revenue instruments, with a focus on property-based local taxes and user charges, as well as external revenue sources such as intergovernmental transfers, borrowing, public-private partnerships, and international assistance.

In the 50-plus metropolitan cities considered here, practice often deviates widely from theory and varies greatly across cities. Therefore, it is impossible to make sweeping recommendations for all countries and cities.