Land use controls and residential land values in the Offinso South municipality,Ghana

Land use controls may have positive, negative or neutral impact on urban land values. The Offinso South Municipality (OSM) employs conventional zoning in its land management practices. This article investigates the land use control regime in and its impact on land values and the living standards of residents of the municipality. Empirical data were obtained from physical developers in the municipality via self-administered questionnaire. It also collected data from occupiers of amenity lands via guided interviews. It finds that there exist large scale violations of planning controls in the municipality. It also finds that amenity lands are generally encroached upon sometimes with connivance of officials from the planning outfit. It suggests that the planning authority should dialogue with developers to ensure voluntary compliance. The planning authority should also build its capacity to enforce its land use plan.     

Delineation of property rights as institutional foundations for urban land markets in transition

This paper aims to critically reflect on establishing the new frameworks for land markets and urban land development processes in countries in transition. Based on the doctrine of the so-called ‘property rights’ school, land and property ownership has long been identified as a prerequisite for economic development. The common advice to countries in transition creating new frameworks for land markets was to assign and register property rights. The aim of this paper is to discuss the significance of the delineation of property rights, which for urban land development processes and outcomes falls mainly within the remit of land use regulations. In this paper the concept of property rights regime and its characteristics is developed in order to discuss the delineation of property rights and their relationship with urban land development process and its outcome. Process of land development is conceptualized depending on land ownership (private or public), and the role of the owner in the planning process. The outcome is discussed based on the morphological results and the provision of urban infrastructure. On the basis of empirical experience from transition period in Poland it is argued that the emphasis on private property rights in the absence of the institutional foundations of urban land market under capitalism was bound to produce urban problems. First, the new institutional foundation for urban land market was introduced subsequent to dynamic of emerging real estate market, and viable markets existed despite unsolved question of restitution of property rights. Second, the subsequent delineation of property rights is clearly linked to processes of urban land development, which follow the line of development without planning. It can also be related to the morphological results of urban development like the haphazard location of investments and lack of adequate approach to deal with the provision of urban infrastructure.     

Urban crops and livestock: The experiences,challenges, and opportunities of planning for urban agriculture in two Canadian provinces

While many municipalities globally are currently undertaking initiatives to support urban agriculture, policies and zoning regulations can act as barriers, with the former usually not integrated with planning. Extensive research has been conducted on urban agriculture policies in the global South, but much less is known about associated practices and policies in the global North. This is especially true for the Canadian context and therefore the present study aims at improving our overall understanding of the urban agriculture situation in two Canadian provinces. Relevant policies, such as official plans or official community plans, alternate policy documents and guidelines, zoning by-laws, and animal-related by-laws were reviewed for 10 municipalities in Ontario and in British Columbia, all varying in socio-economic and climatological characteristics. Additional key informant interviews were conducted with municipal planners, community garden coordinators, and other municipal staff familiar with urban agriculture policies from six of the selected municipalities.In line with global trends, our results suggest that urban agriculture is becoming more widespread in the two provinces. However, even though all studied municipalities consistently support urban agriculture, they vary significantly in their approach, with some municipalities focusing much more narrowly on certain types of activities than others. Overall, community advocacy and municipal council support are the most important drivers in the policy process. Key informants expressed a need to bridge existing gaps between policy adoption and implementation of tools, emphasize public education and public awareness, create inventories of land available for urban agriculture, incorporate urban agriculture in the development review process, and focus on the commercial potential of the practice. Encouragingly, despite the many challenges that need to be addressed, we found that many opportunities exist that municipalities could consider when creating improved local urban agriculture policies and tools to enhance the urban food system.     

Upzoning and value capture: How U.S. local governments use land use regulation power to create and capture value from real estate developments

The public sector can harness its authority to control land uses to secure valuable public benefits from real estate developments. This paper investigates how five major U.S. cities—Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle—are using their land use regulation powers to create and capture value for the public benefit. An analysis of the zoning and entitlement processes of the 20 largest real estate development projects in each city reveals that value has been captured from all 100 projects. Furthermore, these cities implicitly differentiated value capture into two distinct components: value creation and value capture. Among the 100 projects, cities created value for 90 projects by allowing greater density and height—a practice often referred to as “upzoning.” Distinguishing such upzoning incidences from traditional land use exaction tools is important because the added value gives local governments greater legitimacy in asking for public benefits. The experience of the five cities further revealed that value capture strategies can be customized to adapt to unique regulatory, political, and cultural contexts. Lastly, despite the fact that the majority of the upzoned projects increased density and height through project-specific negotiations, none of the cities had clear standards or evaluation frameworks for determining: how much value was created, what can be asked for in return, and who should benefit from the value captured. Cross-national scholarship on value capture can be leveraged to address these important questions.     

ZEIS maps: Comparing areas to be earmarked exclusively for social housing in São Paulo city

The Special Zones of Social Interest (Zonas Especiais de Interesse Social – ZEIS) are urban areas specifically earmarked under municipal law for social housing purposes. ZEIS maps demarcated under São Paulo city’s Master Plans – 2002 and 2014 – were examined to quantify the changes over the years and to provide starting point data to evaluate of the limits and the possibilities for further socioeconomic and legal analysis. The zoning impacts were assessed by numeric and cartographic comparison using the available socioeconomic maps and reports produced by the municipality. A post-occupation (a posteriori) zoning (ZEIS type 1 representing 9.4% of municipal area) followed the expansion of the informal settlements, thus providing a first step for assessing the land tenure, while a pre-occupation (a priori) zoning (ZEIS types 2, 3, 4 and 5 representing 2.3% of municipal area) is an important measure for designating land for social housing purposes, even if they do maintain the segregated occupation pattern on the periphery. Upgrading programs have been disappointing, considering the amount of informally occupied land; similarly, property regularization in the land registry offices reveals a lack of political priority and rare provision of public goods and amenities. For vacant land, determining the social function of property remains a challenge because less than 10% of land use intended for social housing projects was implemented as planned. Housing deficit and inequality remain as complex problems. Obviously ZEIS as a zoning tool is still unable to make the fairest occupation processes possible, not being an isolated solution, but if it is used correctly with other innovative measures and housing solutions, satisfactory results can be achieved.     

Developing an appropriate land use methodology to promote spatially just,formal retail areas in developing countries: The case of the City of Cape Town,South Africa

South African scholars have increasingly recognized that the prevailing management system for land use is one not relevant to the current spatial needs of the country's settlements. These include, in particular, the need to create sustainable, spatially just and resilient settlements and to develop land in a manner that promotes efficient urban development. The debate in the South African literature on land use management has, with a few notable exceptions, yet to venture into the specific mechanics of how to fix this system, ways the system can be used to create a spatially just urban form, or its applicability in formal retail areas.This paper addresses these questions within the context of formal retail areas and the zoning category that these are typically found in, namely that of the General Business zone. This paper initially investigates the current exclusionary nature of formal retail areas in the context of South Africa and within Cape Town and how this is linked to the more macro patterns of spatial exclusion within Cape Town. It is argued that within the context of Cape Town there is a need to focus on both commercial, particularly formal retail, as well as residential, areas with regard to the project of creating a more spatially just city. It is subsequently demonstrated, firstly, how zoning scheme provisions could be used as a mechanism to address these patterns of exclusion in formal retail areas, specifically exploring provisions that would encourage inclusion of informal and microenterprises within shopping malls. Secondly, it is demonstrated how provisions can be included that create a safer and more inviting environment for public transport users and poorer employees and consumers, in formal retail areas.The contribution of this paper is to initiate a long overdue conversation regarding the relationship between land use management and social justice within a developing world context, and in formal retail areas, and aims to set out ways in which land use management can be made more relevant; both for South African cities and cities in other developing countries.     

Local regulatory responses during a regional housing shortage: An analysis of rezonings in Silicon Valley

Scholars have partially blamed high housing prices in many metropolitan areas on residential density restrictions. Santa Clara County is the geographic heart of California’s Silicon Valley and is one of the most expensive counties in the U.S. for renters and homebuyers. This research answers two questions about how municipalities change their zoning. First, how common are rezonings? Second, what are the determinants of density-increasing “upzonings” and density-decreasing “downzonings”? This is the first study to analyze rezonings across neighboring municipalities and expands our limited explanations of rezonings. The three largest cities in Santa Clara County are analyzed using a parcel dataset with zoning at two time periods: 2006–2016 for San José and Sunnyvale, and 2012–2016 for the city of Santa Clara. Multinomial logistic regression models are used to compare the relative risk of a parcel being upzoned or downzoned compared with no zoning change. Little land was upzoned in the three cities. San José increased allowable residential densities on 0.6% of its parcel land area on average per year, while Santa Clara averaged 0.3% and Sunnyvale averaged 0.1% per year. Downzoning was less common and tended to involve small reductions in allowable density. San José decreased allowable residential densities on 0.5% of its land area per year, and Santa Clara and Sunnyvale engaged in almost no downzoning. The main findings are: (1) regulatory changes were more likely in San José, the central city, than in the neighboring smaller municipalities; (2) there was little upzoning or downzoning, regardless of a neighborhood’s homeownership rate; and (3) rezonings tended to be small-scale and initiated by property owners rather than through large-scale municipal actions.     

Sustainable housing: A ground lease partnership model

Against the background of strained housing markets, economic, social and ecological targets (e.g. energy-based modernization) may conflict with each other. Against this backdrop, municipal leasehold approaches appear to be interesting. Considering the case of Germany, the legislator designed leasehold rights as an instrument to tackle a variety of targets. However, compliance with the Tinbergen rule suggests that municipalities should focus on economic targets while using leasehold approaches. Nonetheless, they should waive any exploitation of their monopolistic position in the local land market in favor of ground leases that are in line with the capital market. In doing so, public leasehold approaches may create an added value which may help to ease the conflicts between social and ecological targets. In this context, social and ecological targets shouldn’t be pursued by the municipality itself, but in cooperation with suitable partners not looking to maximize their risk/return requirements. However, a number of obstacles have to be removed before leasehold rights can be used in this way.     

The problem of fair division of surplus development rights in redevelopment of urban areas: Can the Shapley value help?

Many more people are expected to live in urban areas in the coming decades, and much of the physical transformation will take place in the built-up areas of cities. Landownership is a key factor in urban regeneration, and the fair division of benefits is a major obstacle to redeveloping urban land in a cooperative context. This paper aims to show that the Shapley value, a fair division scheme developed within the cooperative game theory framework, can be used to achieve a fair division of the surplus development rights among landowners remolding smaller and irregular parcels into bigger and regular ones, resulting in higher aggregate development rights. The methodology is illustrated by a case study of three parcels selected from the Karabaglar district in Izmir, Turkey, where surplus development rights are available for landowners cooperating for land amalgamation. The findings show that the Shapley values for the landowners satisfy the core conditions of the game and landowners can benefit from the highest possible development rights and share the surplus fairly. However, the current institutional setting has to be restructured to apply such division schemes.     

Participation in property formation: Insights from land-use planning in an informal urban settlement in Tanzania

This study argues that where land-use planning of any kind is conducted, it plays a supporting role that enables the property formation process to be effective. It uses evidence from Makongo Juu Settlement (in Tanzania) to reveal that the participation of actors with various levels of tenure awareness is necessary for property formation (land parceling). As the study is case-study focused, it uses data collected through a mix of procedures—including in-depth interviews, survey questionnaires, and documentary processes—analyzed qualitatively. Findings confirm that land-use planning introduces or embeds formal rules and regulations that govern the use of land. Furthermore, the study presents the affected persons’ narratives of their involvement in the property formation process. This medium allowed for an understanding of their perspectives of the property formation in the context of land-use planning. Apart from these empirical revelations (among other findings), the study contributes to land administration and land management literature in three ways. First, it outlines a typical outlook of formal and informal land development processes. Second, it deconstructs property formation in the context of land-use planning in an informal settlement. Thirdly, it presents the typical categories of actors (including their roles and viewpoints) in the participatory property formation process in an informal settlement. The study recommends that cadastral surveying (Property formation) and land-use planning should be better integrated for the formalization of property rights. This recommendation is considered necessary because there is evidence that land-use planning assigns rights (including restrictions and obligations or responsibilities) that owners and users of land have to follow in the property formation process.     

Land tenure security for women: A conceptual framework

While strengthening women’s land rights is increasingly on national and international agendas, there is little consensus on how to understand women’s tenure security. Analyses of women’s land rights often use very different definitions of land rights, from formal ownership to women’s management of plots allocated to them by their husbands. This paper identifies aspects of women’s tenure that should be included in indicators. It then provides a conceptual framework to identify the various dimensions of women’s land tenure security and the myriad factors that may influence it. To be able to compare women’s tenure security in different places, we need information on the context, the threats and opportunities facing tenure security, and the action arena that includes both the people who play a role in promoting or limiting women’s tenure security and the resources used in doing so.     

Redefining property rights over collective land in the urban redevelopment of Shenzhen,China

Urban development in China is based on two types of land ownership, namely, state land owned by states and collective land owned by village collectives. Legally speaking, urban development must be based on state land. In practice, informal development based on collective land has played important roles in the rapid urbanization process over the past decades. Nonetheless, the vague property rights over collective land have led to inferior and suboptimal development outcomes in expansive urban areas. The redevelopment of collective land has become an important means to sustain urban development in an ongoing urbanization process. By adopting theoretical perspectives from New Institutional Economics, this study presents an integrated conceptual framework on the institutional arrangements of land property rights and transaction costs to understand the changes in land policies and their institutional implications for the redevelopment of collective land in Shenzhen, China. The findings reveal that the new policies have redefined the relationship among the government, village collectives, and real estate developers as well as their property rights over collective land. The change of institutional arrangements in land property rights has significantly reduced the transaction costs in the redevelopment process and effectively promoted land redevelopment activities.     

Securing rural land transactions in Africa. An Ivorian perspective

A good deal of research has highlighted the surge and development of rural land sales and tenancy contracts in West Africa. However, the commoditization of land, especially through sales, does not appear to be obvious, as land transactions appear to be a major source of tenure insecurity and land conflicts. This issue is linked with the broader issue of identification and recognition of both the land rights that are being transferred and people holding them. This article deals with tensions and conflicts in land transactions in Côte d’Ivoire and discusses how these transactions might be secured in a context where most transactions occur outside the legal framework. The 1998 Law aims to organise a rapid transition towards private property rights through a nationwide certification and titling program. Due to the socio-political situation, it was only in 2010 that the first certificates were issued and even independently of current political turmoil, there are grounds for doubting the effective implementation of the law. The objective of this article is to consider the issue of securing land transactions in the pre-certification/titling context, drawing from the author's intensive field research on land transactions in Côte d’Ivoire. A first section describes the main types of rural land transactions in Côte d’Ivoire. The second section outlines the sources of tensions and conflicts arising from these transactions. The third section assesses the practices that have emerged spontaneously in rural areas to secure transactions. The fourth section considers the needs and conditions for a public intervention regarding the security of land transactions.     

Power,capital, and the poverty of farmers’ land rights in China

This article is intended to conduct a three-dimensional examination of China’s rural land rights and the complex dynamic among political power, economic capital, and farmers’ rights during the past seventy years. First, the study takes a close look at the historical changes in the nature, scope, and ownership of land property in rural China during four significant time periods from 1949 to 2019. Second, it uses Ronald Coase’s theory on property rights in dissecting the four paradoxes and dilemmas in China’s rural land ownership, including the extent of clarity and stability of land property rights, the “three rights system” (the rights to ownership, contracting and operation of land) and three stagnations in defining and exercising such three rights, the simultaneous shortage and waste of land resources, as well as the restrictions on land transactions and the requirement to protect collective property. With examples derived from selected evidence, the article documents how both political power and economic capital have worked together to deprive farmers’ land rights. It concludes with a critical analysis of the current status of China’s rural economy, the problem of applying Western economic theories to China’s reality, as well as the theoretical definition, legal protection and policy parameters of land property rights in China.     

Is there decentralization in North Korea? Evidence and lessons from the sloping land management program 2004–2014

In the 1990s, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) suffered from severe food shortages and large-scale deforestation, which triggered a stage of rural conservation reform. Since 2004, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), North Korea’s Ministry of Land and Environmental Protection (MoLEP) has implemented a Sloping Land Management Program (SLMP). The SLMP established sloping land user groups and granted these groups the right to use marginal land for agroforestry development. This devolution of land rights from state control onto local groups is a landmark in North Korea, and this decentralization initiative has now expanded to over eight counties to involve thousands of households. It has also led to the launch of a National Agroforestry Policy and Strategy. Drawing from both qualitative and quantitative data collected from 2008 to 2014, this paper documents the process and effects of the SLMP. It argues that the decentralization reform in land management has contributed to not only food security with increased food crop diversity and productivity, but also notably forest recovery through an expansion of tree plantations and agroforestry practices on degraded sloping lands. However, an insufficient power transfer in the form of a lack of timber rights granted to the local user groups has hampered the effectiveness of the SLMP. There are also institutional and geopolitical challenges that are limiting further scaling-up of land-use decentralization across the country. The policy implication calls for more international investment as well as national land-use policy reforms in order to promote and facilitate further decentralization of sloping land management and to secure greater use rights for sloping land user groups.     

Promoting planning for housing development: What can Sweden learn from Germany?

In the years 2006–2014, urban planning reform was seen as the major remedy against housing shortage in Sweden. The present government has the continuation of such reform on its agenda, but as of yet has made no proposals; instead, other housing policy measures have been introduced.In light of the uncertainty as to the future course of urban planning reform, possible future steps can be discussed. This article accordingly investigates whether German urban planning law and implementation could provide interesting reference points for discussion of further urban planning reform in Sweden, and if so, what parts of the German experience should be the center of attention.The article covers three aspects of German planning that influence the uncertainty, duration, and cost of residential planning as well as social goals addressed through planning: planning law, focusing on facilitated planning procedures of German planning law, measures taken in the organization of planning authorities to make development planning more efficient, and planning-related city demands for affordable housing.The conclusions encompass proposals for the further reform of the Swedish planning process in the form of a facilitated and accelerated development planning procedure for housing projects, as well as the introduction of private initiative in development planning. Further improvements to the organization and incentives of planning authorities are proposed. More research is required into municipal demands for affordable housing in the form of inclusionary zoning; such research should draw on the extensive international experience of such zoning, relating it to a Swedish pilot project.     

Why should landowners in protected areas be compensated? A theoretical framework based on value capture

Many protected areas around the world are struggling to achieve financial stability and meet management costs, which is a difficult challenge. This difficulty is particularly acute in China, even though protected area conservation has been increasingly stressed upon in recent central policy announcements. The practice of providing supplemental funding for protected areas has been going on for years, but there is a lack of theoretical research on why and how landowners in protected areas could be compensated. This paper aims to fill the gap and make two contributions to the literature by explaining why landowners in protected areas should be compensated and who should pay for protected areas. The theoretical arguments on compensation for protected areas are first reviewed before we derive the theoretical framework of value capture for protected areas in China based on the principle of symmetry between burden and compensation. We conclude that local residents should be compensated according to the principle of equal public burden because the spatial regulation of protected areas has seriously restricted their land development rights. Furthermore, the beneficiaries of added land value in the process of the spatial regulation of protected areas can be categorized into three groups: the general public, residents around protected areas and some residents in protected areas (along the infrastructure site or in the upzoning area). Therefore, we structure a three-level value capture framework for protected areas. This is the first attempt to study compensation for protected areas based on value capture theory, which can provide guidance on protected area management for government leaders and researchers across the world.     

Analyzing form-based zoning’s potential to stimulate mixed-use development in different economic environments

Form-based zoning ordinances can provide real estate developers with the ability to alter the mix of residential and commercial space included in their projects so long as they comply with design requirements governing the exterior of buildings. The real option model presented in this paper quantifies the value of this flexibility to assess the potential impact on development decisions and developer profits across market settings. The results suggest form-based zoning may stimulate development in weak markets with volatile demand. However, it may not consistently encourage a greater mixing of real estate product types in comparison to other land use regulations.     

Assessing the fragmentation of construction land in urban areas: An index method and case study in Shunde, China

The fragmentation of construction land due to decentralised urban development, disorderly mixed land use, and large-scale transportation infrastructure poses a threat to urban integrity. There is a need to quantify the fragmentation level in a consistent way for inclusion in planning-related decisions. In the context of China's urban sprawl, this study develops a quantitative and intuitive index approach that planners can use to analyse multiple fragmentation features of construction land within urban areas. The approach can be used in planning policy reviews for timely land-use assessment and can be integrated into urban planning processes for developing strategic land-use scenarios. The method was applied in Shunde, a typical urban area in southern China, and construction-land fragmentation and its impacts on environmental quality were analysed. The results show that the entire built-up area in Shunde displays a high level of fragmentation. Patches of industrial and rural residence have been identified specifically higher fragmentation level. The shortage of available construction land makes land consolidation within built-up areas very important in planning Shunde's future development. Moreover, the land shortage requires the progressive reduction of construction land fragmentation. The results of the study also indicate that although land fragmentation has been affected by transportation infrastructure and the existence of rivers and hills in this region, decentralised decisions from hierarchical local governance regimes have greatly exacerbated this situation. Shunde provides examples of typical land-use problems associated with quasi-urbanised regions in China; construction-land fragmentation is a greater determinant for the sustainable development of urban and rural areas than construction-land growth.     

Capitalization of land development rights in rural China: A choice experiment on individuals’ preferences in peri-urban Shanghai

The capitalization of land development rights is acknowledged as the key to improving compensations for rural landholders and ameliorating land-related social conflicts in peri-urban China. Investigations into reasonable as well as feasible compensation standards and the capitalization mechanism are yet to be done. This study uses a survey-based choice experiment to empirically estimate the value of land development rights in peri-urban Shanghai for three forms of rural land conversion – acquisition, consolidation and (informal) sale. The results show that heterogeneity across individuals’ preferences translates into different utilities from land development, which affects individual’s willingness to participate in this process. This effect is found to be the strongest for land sales on the informal market. If, however, land conversion is managed by local governments and rural collectives, the expected utilities of individuals have no significant effect on the amount of land development. The results suggest that capitalizing land development rights under consideration of land attributes and individuals’ preferences would lift compensation standard to a level that strikes a balance among competing land-related interests. In addition, it would promote China’s land development by bypassing the institutional constraints imposed by the current land tenure system.