Over the past two decades Americans have become increasingly skeptical about the benefits of community growth and hostile to new taxes--while continuing to demand improvements in local services. One response to this tension has been a burgeoning movement to raise public revenue by regulating growth. In this timely book, the authors explain that most growing localities now require private developers to finance public improvements as a condition for receiving permits to build. These permit conditions, known as "exactions," are most commonly used to ensure that infrastructure capacity will be adequate to serve the occupants of new real estate developments and to lessen the harmful effects of these developments on other local citizens. Exactions are often used to finance new roads, water and waste disposal facilities, and public open space, but some communities have begun to require developer financing for such services as day care, job training, low-cost housing, and ride sharing. The authors see the dramatic growth of exaction financing as an epochal shift in the character of American land use regulation. A function once isolated from the local government mainstream is now close to heart of fiscal and public works decisionmaking. Politicians find exactions an extremely valuable tactic for resolving land use conflict. Lawyers and developers worry about how to establish appropriate limits on the use of exaction, economists debate their equity and efficiency, and planners consider their effect on urban reform. Regulation for Revenue offers an integrated appraisal of exaction financing, showing that exactions come in many forms and that they can be meaningfully evaluated only by comparison with realistic alternatives. These include growth restrictions, tolerance of infrastructure overload, and increased tax and user charges.
Alan A. Altshuler is the Ruth and Frank Stanton Professor of Urban Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and its Graduate School of Design. He is also director of the Kennedy School's Taubman Center for State and Local Government. Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez, professor of public policy and urban planning at Harvard University, is coauthor of Going Private: The International Experience with Transport Privatization (Brookings, 1994). Arnold M. Howitt is associate director of the Taubman Center.
"This is a timely book on an important topic. It sheds new light on why development charges are spreading so quickly and finds good reasons to question their results. By bringing together political and economic perspectives, the authors have made a fresh contribution to the debate about growth-controls that is sure to interest public officials, citizen activists, and people who care about the future of cities and suburbs." --Bernard J. Frieden,, Massachusetts Institute of Techonology "A concise encyclopedia of recent urban trends and of the revolutionary fiscal and programmatic responses to them. Their book is written with such precision and sheer savvy that it's sure to become the standing authority in the field." --Melvin Webber, University of California, Berkley "This is an important and timely book; the authors have done a superb job of describing and analyzing the emerging roleof exactions in land use planning and regulation. A highly readable book that sould be required reading for planners, real estate developers, and public officials. first-rate scholarship." --Mitchell L. Moss, New York University "The book provides the first clear comprehensive analysis of the impact of exactions on development and on crucial public policy issues affecting the distribution of revenue and people in metropolitan areas. The book is first rate, a 'must read' for students of public policy-which should mean all concerned Americans. -" --Marshall Kaplan, University of Colorado
"This is a timely book on an important topic. It sheds new light on why development charges are spreading so quickly and finds good reasons to question their results. By bringing together political and economic perspectives, the authors have made a fresh contribution to the debate about growth-controls that is sure to interest public officials, citizen activists, and people who care about the future of cities and suburbs." -Bernard J. Frieden,, Massachusetts Institute of Techonology |"A concise encyclopedia of recent urban trends and of the revolutionary fiscal and programmatic responses to them. Their book is written with such precision and sheer savvy that it's sure to become the standing authority in the field." -Melvin Webber, University of California, Berkley |"This is an important and timely book; the authors have done a superb job of describing and analyzing the emerging roleof exactions in land use planning and regulation. A highly readable book that sould be required reading for planners, real estate developers, and public officials. first-rate scholarship." -Mitchell L. Moss, New York University |"The book provides the first clear comprehensive analysis of the impact of exactions on development and on crucial public policy issues affecting the distribution of revenue and people in metropolitan areas. The book is first rate, a 'must read' for students of public policy-which should mean all concerned Americans. -" -Marshall Kaplan, University of Colorado
