Since a considerable body of scholarship exists on the interests most commonly in dispute, let us concentrate here on the values. In any given controversy, self-interested groups organize their briefs around aspects of one or the other of these ideologies. So it is easy to miss the crucial fact that both enjoy near-consensual support. The disputes typically arise in situations where parties disagree about which ideology ought to take precedence or about how the differing ideological claims should be balanced. The land use arena is chock full of such points.
Ownership is private.
Most development initiative is private. And tradition favors viewing land as a market commodity. So everyone has a powerful stake in the preservation of some common spaces, in society's rules for behavior in such spaces, and in some regulation of land use overspill effects. Owners themselves, moreover, are eager for collective services. The value of urban real estate hinges critically on the availability and quality of such services, from highway access to public safety to education.