This practice is widespread in the U.S. and is intended as a means to reduce the property tax burden on farmers and to slow the conversion of farmland into developed uses. The economic theory of land prices is presented and used to frame a context within which use-value assessment tax expenditures can be examined. Empirical models of the difference between market value and use value are then estimated using two data sets from Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. J ohn E. Anderson is professor of economics and director of Graduate Studies in Economics at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. This paper presents the observations of a year-long study of innovative urban sustainability initiatives in more than 20 European cities in ten countries.
Special attention is given to strategies for limiting the use and presence of automobiles.
The paper ends with a series of lessons learned and implications for American cities. The focus of this research is on city governments as owners of vacant land and regulators of privately held vacant land through their land-use and zoning powers. The first part of the paper is a literature review. Most studies and reports are ad hoc and case specific, impinging on our ability to make informed judgments and assessments about urban vacant land more generally. Missing from the policy discussion on what to do with urban vacant land is an empirical and broad-based assessment of the vital role city governments play in disposing and amassing land for developmental, recreational or greenspace purposes.