Land Markets at the Urban Fringe New Insights for Policy Makers

Abstract

This article reports the results of an extensive survey of owners of undeveloped land outside the Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Calgary, Sacramento, and Toronto metropolitan areas. After identifying several distinct owner types, the authors demonstrate that changes in ownership, as well as in the character and use of land, begin more than twenty years before the rural countryside is actually converted to urban use. These findings have important implications for the design and implementation of policies attempting to control or direct urban growth. In particular, the factors responsible for land turnover constrain the ability of preferential tax treatment policies and subdivision controls to achieve their goal of preserving rural land. Analysis of the survey results also suggests that carefully designed growth controls may be more effective than speculative taxes in reducing investment activity at the urban fringe. None of these measures, however, will lower the price of developable land or prevent metropolitan growth.