You are here:
ECONOMIC INCENTIVES FOR LAND USE CONTROL
Citation:
Rueter, F. AND P. Kushner. ECONOMIC INCENTIVES FOR LAND USE CONTROL. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/5-77/001.
Description:
The report first investigates the economic and legal relationships between alternative assignments of property rights in the use of resources and the levels of external effects attributable to the use of these resources. Then, the administrative, legal, economic, and political limitations of the traditional land use control mechanisms of municipal zoning, subdivision regulation, building codes, and eminent domain condemnation are examined. Next, a set of basic concepts is developed for the evaluation of the potential economic efficiency and social desirability of any mechanism for the optimal control of external effects or the optimal provision of public facilities. Finally, using these concepts, the potential economic efficiency, legal feasibility, administrative tractability, political acceptability, and social desirability of implementing several innovative and, as yet, relatively untried land use control mechanisms are assessed.