The environmental consequences of residential land tenure in single family neighborhoods

Abstract

There is a need for better understanding of urban land systems as cities around the world are confronting environmental change. One urban land system that has large implications for biophysical systems, but is especially difficult to manage are private residential neighborhoods. This perspective essay draws together previously disconnected scholarship on housing and land systems to define residential land tenure: the formal and informal rules, rights, and obligations to access, use, and transfer a land parcel by virtue of those assigned to the dwelling it contains. The environmental consequences of residential land tenure are illustrated using the example of compulsory collective governance, a housing tenure arrangement that has become part and parcel with single family detached residential subdivisions across the Anglosphere. Under this regime, land holders forfeit control in exchange for wealth building potential centered on aesthetics. The consequences for the environment are largest where statutory law is weak and pro-environmental action does not align with aesthetics-driven wealth building goals. Broadly, the example illustrates how urban land institutions operating primarily in the social realm can also be understood as de facto land managers in urban contexts.