THE EFFECT OF A FOREST CONSERVATION REGULATION ON THE VALUE OF SUBDIVISIONS IN MARYLAND

Ian W. Hardie and Cynthia J. Nickerson

No 28575, Working Papers from University of Maryland, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics

Abstract: Profit-maximizing land developers are hypothesized to configure subdivisions to minimize the effects of a conservation regulation on developed land values, subject to their expectations about the demand for developed building lots. This hypothesis allows development of a hedonic price model that takes account of production adjustments. The model is applied to the Maryland Forest Conservation Act, which requires developers to retain or plant trees on part of the developed land. Being exempt from the Act allows developers to gain more for the subdivisions they develop: the cost to regulated developers is about six percent of the per-acre price of developed land. The Act has significantly lowered per-acre developed land values in subdivisions with a mixture of townhouses and single-family dwellings. Costs of the Act are reduced by provisions that allow developers to plant trees offsite or to pay fees in lieu of planting.

Keywords: Resource/Energy; Economics; and; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34
Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/28575/files/wp03-01.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:umdrwp:28575

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.28575

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from University of Maryland, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().