Negotiating the Public Interest: California's Development Agreement Statute

Abstract

Judging by the proliferation of recent professional journal articles and conference seminars, public/private development negotiation is a topic of widespread interest to developers, planners, citizens, and decision makers. Stories in Planning about development agreements have focused on both the techniques and philosophy of development negotiation. For some, this is a “heartening sign of a trend toward greater cooperation between local governments and developers.”¹ Others worry that “the replacement of the rule of law by the rule of men poses serious legal issues. What is gained in flexibility… may be lost in inequities.”²