Urban Land Supply, Real Resource Constraint or Man Made Shortage? World Bank March 9 10, 2009 Washington DC

Transcription

1 Urban Land Supply, Real Resource Constraint or Man Made Shortage? World Bank March 9 10, 2009 Washington DC By Alain Bertaud Duatreb@msn.com bertaud.com/ 1

2 Outline A. last decade review: how cities and policies have evolved B. Setting priorities for urban development Removing constraints on land supply C. Possible World Bank involvement 2

3 A. last decade review: how cities have evolved. Evolution of urban policy The important economic role of large cities is now well accepted The necessity to manage urban growth rather than to try to slow it down is an idea eventually reaching mayors, city managers and urban planners. The growth of the informal sector still mystifies a number of local governments, but, Bulldozing slums on a large scale is not anymore a common policy The informal sector is increasingly recognized as a useful part of the city economy 3

4 The spatial structure of cities: between concentration and dispersion; between markets forces and government regulations City managers are being increasingly concerned with the shape of cities, realizing that urban spatial structures have a large impact on the cost of providing urban services, on housing affordability and on the environment Understanding the role of market forces, regulations and infrastructure investments in shaping cities is essential but often difficult as these factors interact on each others The sprawl concern has spread from the US and Western Europe to many cities of Africa, Asia and Latin America, resulting in regulatory measures restricting further the supply of developed land and increasing the size of the informal sector. In fact most of the spatial dispersion in developing cities is due to government regulations that restrict land supply while boosting demand for land with many cross purpose ill designed regulations 4

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6 Strategic Planning Strategic planning is a useful exercise to guide a city development, in particular to guide infrastructure and transport long term investments; However, strategic planning has often been used to simply restrict land supply, or to develop new land in areas too far away from the city current built up area. Here are a few example of strategic planning failures and success; 6

7 City of Celaya, (Guanajuato, Mexico) 7

8 City of Celaya, (Guanajuato, Mexico) regulatory constraint on land supply 8

9 Cairo New Towns and informal settlements 9

10 Cairo informal settlement 8 km from city center 1,600 people/ha 10

11 Cairo New town El Shorouk (40 km from city center) 11

12 Some strategic plans are excellent: Ahmedabad Structural Plan (1996) 12

13 Ahmedabad sector West (AUDA area). The plan has been implemented. infrastructure financed through TP Schemes 13

14 Land tenure, Government land holdings, land banks Land tenure remains an issue in many cities in the poorest countries. However tradable de facto land tenure (based on street address) seems to be an adequate substitute for cadastre in many cities Large government or para statal land holdings are typically misused (Addis Ababa, Mumbai Port Trust) Given the governments inability to manage the land they already own they should not be encouraged to acquire more, even with the objective of a latter more equitable distribution 14

15 Housing and the informal sector: the planned city vs. the real city 15

16 Regulators have an ideal vision of cities that is very costly to the poor the proportion of households living in informal settlements is directly linked to the minimum standards that establish implicitly the affordability limit separating the formal sector from the informal sector. The design of regulations should recognize the important role played by cities in absorbing the poor emigrating from rural areas 16

17 It is often repeated that the private sector is not interested in building housing for the poor. The growth of the informal sector is entirely due to the private sector, building at market price. There is also an informal land market. The notion that slums are built on free land is incorrect, squatters or illegal settlers usually pay a market price for land. This is why they consume so little of it. If in the informal sector land was free we would see houses built on large lots! 17

18 Setting priorities for urban development 18

19 Setting priorities for urban development: Declared objectives: increase the supply of land and floor space by coordinating transport investments with land use regulations Insure consistency between investments and regulations systematic audit of regulation: not necessarily deregulation but weeding out obsolete regulations and replacing them with better ones. 19

20 Possible World Bank involvement in urban development 20

21 Basic strategy Concentrate on policy objectives Use projects only to test and support broader policy objectives; Do not do pilot projects, they stay pilot for ever, they do not prove anything; Scalability is everything 21

22 Possible policy objectives Increase supply of land, allow consumption standards to float with income and land prices Stimulate growth and concentration of business in CBD by increasing FAR and infrastructure; cost recovery from impact fees or other forms of land based tax or fees Coordinate land use and transport 22

23 Archeology 23

24 Sites and Services financed by the Bank in Mumbai in 1983 (Charkop Kandivali) 24

25 Sites and Services financed by the Bank in Mumbai in 1983 (Charkop Kandivali) 25