Land Development Process Research Articles

Institutional capacities in the land development for housing on greenfield sites in Istanbul

Accommodating urban growth in the fast growing city of Istanbul encounters several problems. This paper discusses the development of greenfield sites in Istanbul by examining the institutional structure of the land development process of some recent large-scale housing projects using a framework of institutional analysis. The result reveals that the public (through both the central government and the local municipalities) has an important role in land development by acting as both regulator and investor. These roles have been empowered by the recent changes in the law. Success has been achieved in terms of the quality and quantity of housing built on greenfield sites in Istanbul over the last decade. However, the price of serviced urban plots in the legal land market remains high, and it remains difficult for the low- and mid-income groups to gain entry to the property market.

A game theory approach to the analysis of land and property development processes

Land and property development processes obviously can be seen as a social situation in which the interaction of individuals or groups of individuals is one of the essential elements. To study and understand social situations, it is important to analyse how the decisions of actors are interrelated and how those decisions result in outcomes. In this paper, we propose a game theoretical modelling approach to analyse it. Hence, the objective of the paper is to investigate the usefulness as well as the limitations of game theoretical modelling for analysing and predicting the behaviour of actors in decision-making processes with respect to the development of land and property. For that purpose, we have developed game models for the case study of the development of a greenfield residential location in the Netherlands with respect to the implementation of new Dutch legislation on cost recovery. Our study demonstrates that game theory could help us to identify the key strategic decisions of land and property development projects by showing the different payoffs for stakeholders of their chosen strategies and selecting the equilibrium in which all stakeholders involved are best of. We also found many limitations of using game theory in our case study especially regarding the assumptions underlying the model. However, we conclude that game theoretical modelling can be a useful decision support tool in spatial planning, because it provides a way to think about the complexity of strategic interaction and, in particular, about the conflicting structure of collective decision-making processes.

初期公団住宅の団地に内在する自然環境の構造とその発現形態

Primary purpose of this paper is to show how the regional structure of natural environment was integrated into planning and design of open spaces through the process of land development for collective housing in hilly areas of suburban districts. A case study was made in Tsurumai district of Nara City that was developed in mid 1960s. Extensive research in land formation process and its results based on the information generated by overlaying grading plans upon the original topography indicates the following points. (1) land formation in the housing site followed basic structure of the original micro topography and generated variety of land form which was identified as a fractal elements found in the regional structures of natural environment. (2) The variety of land forms provided spaces for parks, pedestrian spaces, parking lots and other public facilities, and altogether they support the entire system of spatial organization in the housing site. Also, by a comparative study of existing vegetation and those of the original planting plan, it was indicated that environmental stock represented by existing vegetation was developed mostly in the spaces generated by the land formation process in the site.

Improving the Delivery System for Teaching the Project Planning and Feasibility/Site Development Course to Building Construction Undergraduate Students and Real Estate Graduate Students

The Project Planning and Feasibility/Site Development course in the Building Construction program includes the nomenclature and process of developing residential real property. This multidisciplinary capstone course covers material related to market study, site selection and site analysis, project feasibility analysis, site design, design of houses, estimating, scheduling, financing, and project closeout. By completing this course, students get an overall understanding of the land development process. This article explains a delivery system used by a new instructor of the existing course. The course methodology encourages students to develop self-learning, critical thinking, communication skills, and teamwork abilities. The course overview, objectives, methods, (such as lectures, guest speakers, videos/films, a semester capstone project, field trips), and the instructor assessment of students are presented. The students' evaluations of the course delivery system are also provided.

Evaluating the collective performance of best management practices in catchments undergoing active land development

Development of land, particularly from forested and agricultural uses to urban and suburban uses, has been accelerating in recent years in South Carolina and throughout many other regions of the United States. Although it is relatively well known that such long-term changes in land use/cover can lead to subsequent adverse environmental and ecosystem effects, less recognized are the potential impacts on aquatic environments caused by the actual process of land development itself (e.g., removal of vegetation, disturbance of large areas of soil). For example, episodic and sediment-laden storm water runoff from construction sites can overwhelm the capacity of receiving streams and lead to streambed scour, stream bank erosion, destruction of near-stream vegetative cover, and loss of in-stream habitat for fish and other aquatic species. Furthermore, deposition of sediment in receiving streams over short periods of time from development activities can exceed natural sediment deposition occurring over several decades. The US Environmental Protection Agency has identified sedimentation/siltation as the second most frequently cited stressor of rivers and streams, and has also identified undeveloped areas undergoing active development as a major source of the sediment.

A Study on the Negotiation in Private Sector Residential Land Development Process

A Study on the Negotiation in Private Sector Residential Land Development Process

Four Challenges to Incorporating Transportation Demand Management into the Land Development Process

There are four primary challenges to incorporating transportation demand management (TDM) into the land development process, based on a review of growth management processes in Florida. These findings may be applicable to many cities outside Florida. The challenges include (a) the idea that TDM is valuable only if it can reduce travel, (b) transportation professionals considering TDM too late in the land development process, (c) the conflict between state and local governments for providing balance between mobility and access, and (d) the use of traffic analysis methods and standards that are geared toward preserving highway level of service (LOS) for motor vehicles. The provision of adequate public facilities for transportation is interpreted by Florida law and administrative code as the achievement of highway LOS standards for motor vehicles and not a broader transportation LOS provided by a combination of modes. Measuring LOS focuses on the delay experienced by motor vehicles on the highway and does not allow the weighing of economic, environmental, public health, and social equity costs and benefits of one mode compared with another. As a result, there is no rational tool to justify a different distribution of limited transportation funds across multiple modes. TDM strategies are positioned poorly, internally to government leaders and partner departments and externally to land developers as a sort of mobility “diet” imposed on the traveling public. This paper offers some ideas on where to direct attention to address these issues.

Embedding sustainable development strategies in agent‐based models for use as a planning tool

Rapid land development in rapidly growing countries has created a series of land‐use problems. The implementation of sustainable land use can alleviate some of these problems. It needs a set of tools for the exploration, design, modification, illustration, and evaluation of alternative planning scenarios. This paper demonstrates that the integration of cellular automata and agent‐based modelling can provide a spatial exploratory tool for generating alternative development patterns. Sustainable development strategies are embedded in the modelling to regulate agents' behaviours. The use of agents can help to represent human–environment interactions in solving complex land‐use problems. It is able to examine the effects of different stakeholders in influencing the process of land development. The proposed model has been applied to the simulation of planning scenarios for residential development in a rapidly expanding city in the Pearl River Delta.

Nonlinear, Secondary Impacts of Large Urban-Edge Developments as Evidence of Path Dependency in an Integrated Land Use and Transportation Model

The practice of integrated land use and transportation modeling has improved in the past decade. Use of these models has steadily increased among U.S. metropolitan planning organizations and recently among state departments of transportation. This paper examines the secondary growth impacts of large, urban-edge developments in an integrated model to determine the existence and characteristics of induced land development (also called path dependency in the modeled land development process). The Sacramento, California, MEPLAN model is used to simulate the impact of large, urban-edge, basic sector developments on overall and industry-specific employment in the subject zone over a modeled 25-year period. Four types of basic sector development are considered: office and service, industrial and manufacturing, retail, and government. Ten sizes of each type were modeled, and each simulated development shares a common location and year of construction or occupancy. The study found that secondary employment draw was substantial for all sizes and types of projects, certain industries produced much larger secondary draws than did others, secondary growth increased with the size of the development and continued to have an impact in all future modeled years, and the relationship between initial development size and secondary growth is nonlinear in each development type. This significant, persistent secondary draw suggests that this model manifests a key characteristic of path dependency in the location and building decisions in the model (i.e., a relatively small shift in basic employment can create new development “paths”). These findings yield recommendations for incorporating this work into integrated modeling research and practice.

A game-theoretic approach to urban land development in China

The property rights approach to urban development has recently been proposed in the planning literature to explain how urban systems self-organize spatially and institutionally. The land-tenure system is one of the key factors affecting land use and thus urban development. It is not clear, however, how such a factor affects the process of urban development. This research aims to provide reasonable explanations as to how the land-tenure system in China in general affects urban development, by building game-theoretic models which include plans as a manifestation of informa- tion and property rights as a manifestation of land-use rights. Viewing regulated development as a collective good, the model is based on the prisoner's dilemma game, where the local government regulates and the developer makes development decisions. Preliminary results show that land rights in the transitional economy of China are of paramount importance and must be clearly specified in order to make the land development process efficient at reducing transaction costs.

Simulating Emergent Urban Form Using Agent-Based Modeling: Desakota in the Suzhou-Wuxian Region in China

We propose that the emergent phenomenon know as “desakota,” the rapid urbanization of densely populated rural populations in the newly developed world, particularly China, can be simulated using agent-based models that combine bottom-up actions with global interactions. We argue that desakota represents a surprising and unusual form of urbanization well-matched to processes of land development that are locally determined but moderated by the higher-level macroeconomy. We develop a simple logic that links local household reform to global urban reform, translating these ideas into a model structure that reflects these two scales. Our model first determines the rate of growth of different spatial aggregates using linear statistical analysis. It then allocates this growth to the local level using “developer agents” who determine the transformation or mutation of rural households to urban pursuits based on local land costs, accessibilities, and growth management practices. The model is applied to desakota development in the Suzhou region for the period 1990 to 2000. We show how the global rates of change predicted at the township level in the Wuxian City region surrounding Suzhou are tempered by local transformations of rural to urban land uses which we predict using cellular automata rules. The model is implemented in the RePast 3 software and is validated using a blend of data taken from remote sensing and government statistical sources. It represents an example of generative social science that fuses plausible behavior with formalized logics matched against empirical evidence, essential in showing how novel patterns of urbanization such as desakota emerge.

Neighborhood impacts on land use change: a multinomial logit model of spatial relationships

Models of land use change are central to forecasting urban futures. This work models the related processes of parcel subdivision and land development using a pair of recent GIS-encoded Austin, Texas land use maps. Based on binomial and multinomial logit models of subdivision and use change, a variety of lagged explanatory variables offer insight into land dynamics. Results indicated that local neighborhood conditions offer substantial predictive power, though such effects seem inconsequential beyond 2 miles. Various spatial tendencies in land development are identified here, and comparisons of predicted and actual land use changes (in 2005) reveal strengths and limitations of the models.

Land Development: Risk, Return and Risk Management

We model and examine the financial aspects of the land development process incorporating the industry practice of preselling lots to builders through the use of option contracts as a risk management technique. Using contingent claims valuation, we are able to determine endogenously the land value, presale option value, credits spreads and the effects of presales on debt pricing and equity expected returns. We show that using presales options effectively shift market risk from the land developer to the builder. Results from the model are consistent with the high rates of return on equity observed in empirical surveys; they also suggest that developers may be justified in pursuing projects with substantially lower expected returns to equity when a large number of lots can be presold. Additionally, we show that presales reduce default risk dramatically for leveraged projects and can support a considerable reduction in the cost of construction financing. Large debt risk premiums are justified for highly levered projects, which helps explain the use of mezzanine financing in the land development industry to reduce expected default costs.

Population Displacement and Housing Dilemmas Due to Catastrophic Disasters

As Hurricane Katrina revealed, coastal communities have become far more vulnerable to tropical storms and the long-term displacement of residents. Yet, because the emergency management model presumes that recovery quickly follows response, governments focus only on short-term, localized displacement. However, long-term and long-distance displacement exposes a gray area between immediate shelter and permanent housing, along with concerns about vulnerability, housing availability, and land development. We begin this article by discussing the transition between response and recovery. We then review literature regarding social vulnerability, displacement, provision of temporary housing, households' return decisions, and disaster-driven land development and housing construction processes. We close with thoughts on future research to increase planners' understanding of the issues involved and to help them craft effective policies.

Institutions and local growth coalitions in China's urban land reform: The case of Hangzhou High‐Technology Zone

Abstract: China's urban land reform is a gradualist process of transforming a planned land allocation system to an open land market system, while the ownership of the land remains under the control of the state. This process defines the relationships between local government and emerging non‐public interest groups in the land development process. These issues can be most clearly seen in the State‐Approved Development Zones, where municipalities have been encouraged to promote economic development and test out land policy initiatives. Using the institutionalist and urban growth machine analytical approaches to land development processes, this study examines the operation of development processes and the role of local government and its relationship with other interest groups. By employing a case study research strategy, focused upon the Hangzhou High‐Technology Zone, the study uncovered a local government‐led growth coalition which featured participation by other interest groups and revealed the applicability and variations when applying two strands of theories to a socialist economy in transition. Besides the land reform policy implications drawn from the case study evidence, the study concludes that the presence of interest groups and the missing community organisations unique to China give new theoretical implications and that both theories work much better with the economic domain than with the political domain largely because of a lagged political reform.

What is at Stake?

This study investigated ways to improve the effectiveness of the Virginia Department of Transportation's (VDOT's) participation in the land development process. The implications of land development for transportation cannot be overstated, because all transportation demand is based on land use. Understanding how VDOT participates in this process and any current inefficiencies in the process is critical for improving decision making related to land use, which affects the amount of transportation improvements provided by developers in the commonwealth. Increased contributions by developers can substantially increase mobility in the commonwealth. Transportation improvements related to land use are committed and completed development by development. Their combined value, in the range of billions of dollars per year in the commonwealth, is not immediately obvious. VDOT has the opportunity to affect this multibillion-dollar business to maximize the outcome for Virginia. Although localities have all rezoning and site plan approval authority, and accepting VDOT's recommendations is optional, VDOT can maximize its positive impact when supporting localities in their land development processes. This requires acquiring state-of-the-art knowledge about land use issues, building highly collaborative relationships with localities, applying solid technical analysis, and using effective negotiation skills. This study recommends that VDOT improve its effectiveness in the land development review processes in three areas: (a) implement organizational changes to enhance support for land development activities, (b) improve business practices regarding land development, and (c) improve VDOT's ability to participate more effectively in the land development process to maximize the outcome for the commonwealth.

Exploring the Impacts of Ballot Box Land Use Measures on Affordable Housing

Throughout the U.S., increasing land use regulation via ballot box measures is being addressed. It appears that ballot box land use measures to pass land use regulation change can lead to delays in the land development process. These delays have been found to increase transaction costs, cause uncertainty in the development process, and lead to a reduction in the number of new single-unit homes being constructed. One of the major concerns is that this restriction in supply will lead to increased housing prices in communities, negatively impacting affordable housing by placing it beyond obtainable levels of affordability. In this study, the context of ballot box measures as land use regulation was reviewed, and projections of economic impact of potential land use regulation change were presented. Using Florida as the case in point, projected impacts included home buyers having to earn $3,000 to $12,000 more per year to qualify for higher housing prices due to increased regulation. In areas of the U.S. experiencing severe affordable housing shortages such as Florida, a concerted effort may be needed to maintain land development balance and thus allow affordable housing to be adequately supplied.

Storm water runoff concentration matrix for urban areas

The infrastructure (roads, sidewalk, commercial and residential structures) added during the land development and urbanisation process is designed to collect precipitation and convey it out of the watershed, typically in existing surface water channels, such as streams and rivers. The quality of surface water, seepage water and ground water is influenced by pollutants that collect on impervious surfaces and that are carried by urban storm water runoff. Heavy metals, e.g. lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOH) and readily soluble salts in runoff, contribute to the degradation of water. An intensive literature search on the distribution and concentration of the surface-dependent runoff water has been compiled. Concentration variations of several pollutants derived from different surfaces have been averaged. More than 300 references providing about 1300 data for different pollutants culminate in a representative concentration matrix consisting of medians and extreme values. This matrix can be applied to long-term valuations and numerical modelling of storm water treatment facilities.

The Australian Planning system: A case for reform

Planning cities is no less difficult than putting a man on the moon! It's probably an understatement considering the intersecting forces that are shaping our cities and land development processes today. The moon is much less dynamic! Government responses and reform processes have drawn considerable criticism across Australia. Suggested directions for improving the effectiveness of planning are canvassed in this feature on planning reform.

The State, Land System, and Land Development Processes in Contemporary China

In the era of state socialism under Mao, land in China was treated as a means of production and was allocated administratively by the state free of charge. To accommodate the interests of foreign investors without violating the socialist principle of public ownership, the Chinese state has, since the 1980s, separated land use rights from land ownership and opened up a new market track for the conveyance of land use rights to commercial users. The result has been a distinct dual-track land system in the new political economy, characterized by significant asymmetry for arbitrage. Discrepancy between the state's intention and actual outcome has been a consequence of the internal diversity of power relations concerning land development. Our data analysis reveals that the loss of farmland to nonagricultural developments has slowed down in recent years, that the state's intention to increase land use efficiency has been severely compromised by the socialist legacy, and that illegal activities are pervasive. The Chinese socialist state is better seen as a dynamic, complex, heterogeneous, and self-conflictual institutional ensemble in and through which the forces and interests of different levels of the state are contested, negotiated, and mediated.