Fiscalisation of Land Use, Urban Growth Boundaries and Non-central Retail Sprawl in the Western United States

Abstract

Do the ways that local governments raise own-source revenue and/or use urban growth boundaries exert distinct in uences on the occurrence of retail activity outside a metropolitan area's central places? This question is addressed in this paper through a regression analysis that also accounts for economic factors that provide clear reasons for retail activity to locate in non-central places. Results indicate that state-wide reliance by municipalities on some forms of own-source revenue exert signi cant positive in uences on retail sales in non-central places in metropolitan areas in the western US. 'Excessive' retail decentralisation generated through this ' scalisation of land use' is presented within the widely discussed concept of 'urban sprawl'. The continuing presence of one form of urban growth boundary is also found to reduce retail decentralisation.

Integrating California's Climate Change and Fiscal Goals: The known, the Unknown, and the Possible

“…Brueckner and Kim (2003) suggest that the sprawl impacts will slightly outweigh density effects. Wassmer's (2002) analysis of fiscalization found that the relationship between property tax share and suburban retail sales is negligible, possibly confirming Brueckner and Kim's result; in other words, property tax limits could be limiting fiscalization and by implication, sprawl. Local jurisdictions have little incentive to boost property values long-term because they get so little property tax revenue back from the state.…”

“…That cities embrace the fiscalization of land use is common wisdom among California planners, yet there are just two (possibly outdated) studies that attempt to measure it (Lewis 2001a, Wassmer 2002. In theory, the desire to improve city finances may lead cities to rezone land for retail or other taxable uses or respond more favorably to development proposals that bring new tax revenues.…”

“…The city manager survey found that, when asked their preferences for development, city managers in suburban municipalities tend to rank retail land use higher than those in central cities (Lewis 2001b). Reliance on sales tax revenue has a significant and positive influence on suburban retail activity, although urban growth boundaries can reduce this retail sprawl over time (Wassmer 2002). Because of their increase in retail, suburbs gain business taxes and franchise or license fees as well (ibid.…”

Assessing Portland's Smart Growth: A Comprehensive Housing Supply and Location Choice Modeling Approach

“…A basic finding by this study is that state-based planning programs worked better when strong consistency and enforcement mechanisms were required by the states. To examine the impact of state growth management policies on non-central retail sprawl, Wassmer (2002) studied 54 western U.S. cities at three time points (1977, 1987, and 1997) by regressing retail sales in non-central places on urban containment policy variables and other controlling variables, and found that over time the most restrictive form of an urban growth boundary reduces the de-centralization of retail sales in metropolitan areas. Another regression based analysis by Wassmer (2006) used log square miles in 452 U.S. urbanized areas designated by the Census as a dependent variable to evaluate the effects of different types of urban containment policies implemented in different regions.…”

Gas Prices Variations and Urban Sprawl: An Empirical Analysis of the 12 Largest Canadian Metropolitan Areas

“…These factors are: i) population; ii) income; iii) transportation costs and iv) agricultural rent (Burchfield et al, 2006;McGibany, 2004;McGrath, 2005;Song & Zenou, 2006;Wassmer, 2002Wassmer, , 2006Wassmer, , 2008. 3 The present study concentrates on natural evolution factors, particularly the private transportation cost of individuals.…”