The Spatial Effects of Land Use Regulations A Missing Link in Growth Control Evaluations

Abstract

This article presents an approach for analyzing the likely spatial effects of land use regulations and growth controls. Planners need to identify such effects to evaluate the success of different measures and their implications for economic growth and citizen welfare. The approach, which relates the preferences and willingness-to-pay of recent home buyers in the regulated area (serving as a proxy for potential buyers) to the controls' price effects, is applied in the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area in Maryland. The results show that growth controls need not necessarily be regressive nor lead to greater sprawl. Moreover, how growth control programs are administered may have ramifications for the magnitude of effects and who is likely to be affected.