Regulation for Revenue: The Political Economy of Land Use Exactions

A Brookings Institution Press and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy publicationOver the past two decades Americans have become increasingly skeptical about the benefits of community growth and hostile to new taxes--while continuing to demand improvements in local services.

One response to this tension has been a burgeoning movement to raise public revenue by regulating growth.In this timely book, the authors explain that most growing localities now require private developers to finance public improvements as a condition for receiving permits to build.

These permit conditions, known as "exactions," are most commonly used to ensure that infrastructure capacity will be adequate to serve the occupants of new real estate developments and to lessen the harmful effects of these developments on other local citizens.

Exactions are often used to finance new roads, water and waste disposal facilities, and public open space, but some communities hav