Residential land use in urban areas can be constrained by zoning or restrictive covenants. When covenants and zoning exist simultaneously, covenants can facilitate an efficient allocation of high-restriction and low-restriction residential land. However, covenants cannot remedy deadweight loss...

Habitat fragmentation is widely considered a primary threat to biodiversity. In this paper, we analyze incentive-based policies designed to reduce forest fragmentation in the coastal plain region of South Carolina. Our approach integrates an econometric model of land use with simulations that...

This study uses the hedonic-pricemethod to examine how environmental zoning and amenities are related to the price of single-family residential properties sold between 1999 and 2001 in Portland, Oregon. The impact of environmental zoning is found to vary with the type of environmental zoning and...

Does growth management result in lower marginal land consumption rates? The literature offers inconclusive and inconsistent results. This paper uses new data covering all U.S. metropolitan areas and multiple time periods to estimate panel models of effects of growth management on the spatial...

We examine conservation activity in western North Carolina, where state income tax credits from land conservation have been available since 1983. Six land trusts, including the Nature Conservancy, undertake conservations in both fee simple and in conservation easement over a twelve year period....

This paper analyzes the impacts of development charges on urban land development. The way in which the burden of a development charge is shared between land supplier, developer, and land consumer, as well as its impact on demand and on developer's profit, depends on a complex range of factors,...

We investigate the effects of forest conservation requirements and zoning on the value of land undergoing subdivision. Land prices are increasing in the percentage of subdivision acreage developers are required to keep in forest, suggesting that forest conservation regulations increase the...

Comprehensive land-use planning is growing in popularity among U.S. state and local policymakers. This popularity is based on the belief that planning enhances community welfare; however, there is little empirical evidence in support of this belief based upon U.S. data. This paper uses unique...

The development of lakefront property in northern Wisconsin has prompted, in several towns, minimum frontage zoning stricter than the state standard. Such zoning generates an economic loss by constraining development (development effect), and an economic gain by preserving environmental...

This paper examines the extent of variation in regulatory stringency below the state level, using establishment-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures survey to estimate a county-level index of environmental compliance costs. County-level variation...