Land Policy Conference to focus on infrastructure

     The role of infrastructure -- its financing, privatization, the notion of "green infrastructure" and impacts on urban development and emerging economies -- will be the focus of the Lincoln Institute's 7^th Annual Land Policy Conference, Infrastructure and Land Policies, June 3-5, 2012 at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge.
     Nearly 90 leading researchers and practitioners will explore topics including the role of infrastructure in developing urban land, the privatization of infrastructure, sustainability and infrastructure, the impact of “mega-events” such as the Olympics, involuntary resettlement policies, and impacts from the growing use of mobile phones in developing countries.
     The papers presented at the conference will be compiled in a single published volume and also made available online. The most recent conference volume, Value Capture and Land Policies, was published this month and was based on the Land Policy Conference in May 2011.
     Fred Salvucci, the former Massachusetts transportation secretary and chief architect of Boston’s $15.6 billion Big Dig, will be the speaker at the opening dinner Sunday June 3, discussing lessons from that megaproject. After welcoming remarks by Lincoln Institute president Gregory K. Ingram Monday June 4, Katherine Sierra, fellow at the Brookings Institution, will deliver the keynote address on sustainable infrastructure for urban growth.
     Infrastructure has changed with advances in technology, and climate change concerns are increasing the movement towards sustainable, green infrastructure development. Urban areas in particular face growing populations along with increasing energy needs, congestion, and pollution—creating complexities for service delivery. These challenges are being compounded by looming shortages of water and available energy relative to current and projected usage in many areas. Sierra will draw on experiences from developed and developing countries to explore the implications of urban growth and climate change on future sustainable infrastructure development.
     The topics and presenters, in order of appearance, include: Infrastructure and urban development: Evidence from Chinese Cities, Yan Song, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Economic activity and infrastructure, César A. Calderón, The World Bank; The unit approach to the taxation of railroad and public utility property, Gary C. Cornia, Brigham Young University; Lawrence C. Walters, Brigham Young University; and David J. Crapo, Crapo Smith; Economic regulation of utility infrastructure, Janice A. Beecher, Michigan State University; What is the value of infrastructure maintenance? Felix Rioja, Georgia State University; Density and cost in financing infrastructure services, Nancey Green Leigh, Georgia Institute of Technology; Chicago and Its Skyway: Lessons from an urban megaproject, Louise Nelson Dyble, Michigan Technological University; Assessing the infrastructure impact of mega-events in emerging economies, Victor A. Matheson, College of the Holy Cross; Understanding infrastructure impacts on greenhouse gas emissions and key mitigation strategies, Anu Ramaswami, University of Colorado Denver; The location effects of alternative road pricing policies, Alex Anas and Tomoru Hiramatsu, State University of New York at Buffalo; How and why does the quality of service delivery vary within and across countries? George R. G. Clarke, Texas A&M International University; Involuntary resettlement in infrastructure projects: A development perspective, Robert Picciotto, Kings College London; Evaluating the performance of the private sector in infrastructure development, Vijaya Ramachandran and Ross Thuotte, Center for Global Development; and Mobile telephony in Africa, Mirjam de Bruijn, Leiden University. The complete agenda can be viewed here.

World Urban Forum dialogue to focus on urban planning

     In anticipation of the Sixth World Urban Forum in Naples in September, coordinated by UN-Habitat, the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. will host a series of dialogues organized by a diverse network of US urban policy stakeholders.
     The first dialogue, on Thursday May 24, 2012 at the National Building Museum will be moderated by Paul Farmer FAICP, chief executive of the American Planning Association, and will focus on how urban planning and design can create the necessary conditions for cities to prosper and effectively respond to urban growth.
     Gregory K. Ingram, president of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy , will join Maria Andrawis, program coordinator at the International Youth Foundation, William Hudnut, former mayor of Indianapolis and Joseph C. Canizaro Fellow for Public Policy at the Urban Land Institute , Abha Joshi-Ghani, head of Global Urban Development Practice at the World Bank, and Harriet Tregoning, director of the Washington DC Office of Planning, for "Rethinking Urban Planning and the Future of Cities: An Interactive Forum," a wide-ranging conversation on what is increasingly recognized as the “urban century.”
     Steven Feldstein, director of the Office of Policy at the U.S. Agency for International Development will provide opening remarks, and Chris Williams, director of the UN-Habitat Washington office, will offer closing comments.
     Urban planners have been on the forefront of innovations in land use, public space, and economic development that have revitalized a profession that will be much in demand in the coming decades. Accordingly, UN-Habitat has elevated urban planning as one of the four dialogues to be discussed at the World Urban Forum 6 September 1-7 in Naples, Italy. Environmental degradation, inadequate infrastructure, and the conditions in which nearly one billion slum dwellers currently live suggest that traditional urban planning models will need to be dramatically revised. This session will examine how a new approach to urban planning itself, including the development of new institutions and legislation, could help improve quality of life.
     The National Building Museum, UN-Habitat, the Office for International & Philanthropic Innovation at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Habitat for Humanity are organizing all four dialogues throughout the summer in the run-up to the World Urban Forum. The other dialogues will be Equity and Prosperity: Distribution of Wealth and Opportunities, on June 18; Productive Cities: Competition, Innovation and Urban Job Creation, July 18; and Urban Mobility, Energy, Environment, and Sustenance, August 13.
     The May 24 dialogue was developed as a partnership of USAID, the American Planning Association, the Urban Land Institute, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and the German Marshall Fund. The event is being supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation .
     At the end of the summer, a cumulative report will be published to summarize the four sessions and draw parallels to forthcoming events at the World Urban Forum 6. Fellows and program directors from the Lincoln Institute will participate in that gathering, expected to draw some 10,000 participants from around the world, in several workshops and presentations.

In Latin America

     Martim O. Smolka, director of the Lincoln Institute’s Latin America program, last month returned from two workshops in Guatemala and Bogota. In Guatemala, the discussion April 19-20 with government officials including mayors and national secretaries, planners, and university representatives, centered on the challenge of reinforcing municipal revenue sources and improving, through urban planning, a better allocation of public investments, especially on urban infrastructure and services. The agenda also included how to improve the performance of the existing property tax system, and the Central American nation was eager to use the Lincoln Institute online resource Property Tax in Latin America  to collect information and evaluate local municipals performance with this tax. This diagnosis will be coordinated by Claudia de Cesare, author of a forthcoming Policy Focus Report on the property tax in Latin America, as part of a capacity-building program in Guatemala. The Lincoln Institute will also lend support on initiatives to improve access to serviced land for social housing programs, Smolka says.
     In Bogota, some 150 government officials, planners and other leaders in urban planning participated in a two-day seminar in recognition of 90 years of the use of the long standing value capture tool – the Contribucion de Valorizacion, or betterment contribution – in Colombia. That discussion, in association with the Education Institute of the Public Attorneys and the National University of Colombia, explored legal and technical issues associated with how the charge is distributed among beneficaries of public investments. “Colombia is demonstrating to the still-skeptical – not only in Latin America but worldwide – a model system for value capture,” Smolka says, pointing out that the contributions will support the financing of some $2.4 billion in infrastructure and other public investments through 2015.

Carolina Barco and Jill Schurtz join Lincoln Institute Board

     The former U.S. Ambassador to Colombia and a leading private equity fund manager joined the Board of Directors of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.  Carolina Barco, who also served as Colombia’s Foreign Minister from 2002 to 2006, and Jill E. Schurtz, most recently chief executive officer of Robeco-Sage, a $1.3 billion fund of hedge fund complex, were elected May 18, 2012 during the spring board meeting.
     “The breadth of knowledge and experience on the board has expanded greatly with the addition of Carolina Barco and Jill Schurtz,” said Kathryn J. Lincoln, chair and chief investment officer at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. “We very much look forward to their contributions and insights.”
     Barco has had over thirty years of leadership in senior public policy positions, including eight years of diplomatic service as Colombia’s Foreign Minister (2002-2006) and Ambassador to the United States (2006-2010). She also spent over 20 years in economic development and urban planning positions, primarily in Bogotá where she was director of the department of city planning.  She is currently concluding an assignment as a coordinator to the Sustainable Emerging Cities Platform at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
     Barco received a B.A. in sociology and economics from Wellesely College, a master of city planning from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and an MBA from the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, and was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990-1991. She had previously served on the Lincoln Institute board.
     Jill E. Schurtz currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Harmony Capital Management, a private equity fund of funds. As CEO of Robeco-Sage, she was instrumental in selling the business to Arden Asset Management.  She continues her involvement in the Sage funds as a member of the Arden-Sage Advisory Committee. Prior to assuming the Robeco-Sage CEO role, she served as its chief operating officer.  After graduating from the United States Military Academy, West Point, she served seven years in the U.S. Army where she attained the rank of Captain. Following her military service, she received her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and was a practicing lawyer with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom LLP. Her other affiliations include investment banking at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray and Knight Equity Markets.
     The other members of the Lincoln Institute board include former Interior secretary and Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt; Roy Bahl, Regents Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Georgia State University; Thomas M. Becker, president of The Chautauqua Institution; Henry A. Coleman, professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University; Alberto Harth, president of Civitas in San Salvador, El Salvador; Gregory K. Ingram, president, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy; Bruce Lincoln of Phoenix, Arizona; David C. Lincoln, president of VIKA Corp. and chairman of the Lincoln Laser Company; John G. Lincoln III, senior engineer at CH2M-Hill in Boise, Idaho; Johannes F. Linn, a resident senior scholar at the Emerging Markets Forum in Washington, D.C.; Thomas Nechyba, professor of economics and public policy studies, Duke University; Kenneth T.W. Pang, adjunct professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Andrea Taylor, director of community affairs, North America, Microsoft Corporation; Douglas P. Wheeler, partner at Hogan Lovells US LLP in Washington, D.C.; and Carol Whiteside, president emeritus of the Great Valley Center in Modesto, California.

In honor of C. Lowell Harriss

     The C. Lowell Harriss Dissertation Fellowship recipients for 2012-2013 have been named, continuing to honor the late Columbia University economist who served for decades on the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s board of directors.
     Through its longstanding graduate student dissertation fellowships, the Lincoln Institute assists Ph.D students, primarily at U.S. universities but also worldwide. This program supports scholars early in their careers, and covers topics ranging from the property tax to watershed protection, through the Department of Taxation and Valuation and the Department of Planning and Urban Form.  The C. Lowell Harriss Dissertation Fellows for 2012-2013 are:
     Timothy R. Hodge, Michigan State University, “Not All Property Taxes Are Created Equal: Tax Base Erosion and Inequities Resulting from Assessment Practices, Assessment Growth Limits, and Tax Abatements”; Kirsten L. Kinzer, University of Pennsylvania, “The Role of Public Participation in the Implementation of Local Government Sustainability; Nicholas J. Marantz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “Statutory Development Agreements: The Cause and Consequences of a Regulatory Innovation”; David J. Munroe, Columbia University, “Essays on Tax Policy in Real-Estate Markets”;  Michael P. Paparesta, Florida International University, “Understanding the Impact of the Property Tax Appeal Process on Assessment Uniformity: Procedures, Structures, and Outcomes” ; Timothy J. Schwuchow, Duke University, “Essays on the Microfoundations of Prices in Housing Markets”; Danielle L. Spurlock, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “Planning for Water Quality: The Implementation of Watershed Protection Policies”; and James Z. Wang, University of Michigan, “County Amenities and Tax Rates: Determinants of Industrial Location Choice”
     Harriss, who died in 2010 at 97, authored a dozen books and several hundred articles on land and tax policy. A native of Nebraska, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard in 1934, and joined the economics faculty at Columbia University four years later. He simultaneously worked on his doctorate in the discipline, which he earned from Columbia in 1940.
     In an obituary appearing in The Boston Globe, the economist Ben Stein is quoted on how Harriss was well known for his “total availability to students in his office, at dinner, for a hamburger after class, to explain and comment on the economic events of the day. I never had a better teacher in any school.’’
     Well regarded by colleagues and fellow board members, Harriss provided a fresh perspective on such topics as land value taxation, and was well-known for mailing around clipped New Yorker cartoons on a range of subjects. He was a board member of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy from 1974 until 2009.

Value capture, past and present

    Although it’s been used widely in Europe and Latin America, value capture – the concept of asking private landowners to contribute to the cost of infrastructure, for example, in anticipation of the rise of property values such projects bring – has been a little harder to find in the U.S. That may be changing. One notable project, the Dallas-Fort Worth Cotton Belt transit line, is based on fundamental principles of value capture.
    Value Capture and Land Policies, the latest in the Land Policy Conference series, seems especially timely. The collection of essays and commentaries may be the most comprehensive survey to date of the use of value capture in the U.S. and around the world, based on the proceedings of the 6th Annual Land Policy Conference held in Cambridge in May 2011.
     The rise of value capture has a logical narrative. Infrastructure is crumbling everywhere, as urban population growth requires significant investments. At the same time, governments are struggling with declines in revenue from traditional sources, if not outright fiscal crises.
     The idea that public actions, such as investments in infrastructure, the provision of public services, and planning and land use regulation, increase the value of land and property, goes back at least as far as Henry George. If it is possible to capture that value, the discussion has centered on the best ways to do it.
     Contributors to Value Capture and Land Policies, edited by Lincoln Institute president Gregory K. Ingram and fellow Yu-Hung Hong, first examine the conceptual framework and history of value capture, the relationship with compensation for takings, the long history of value capture policies in Britain and France, and the remarkable expansion of tax increment financing in California. Other case studies include the conversion of rural-to-urban land in China, town planning schemes in India, community benefit agreements in the U.S., community land trusts to provide affordable housing, the use of land development to finance transit, and the use of various fees to fund airports.
    Value capture is without question “in the air,” said Ingram. Some instruments inherently reflect the concept without being labeled as such, but future policies may come right out and say it.

Universities as conservation catalysts

Colleges and universities have long been studied as partners in urban development. Last month, Lincoln Institue fellow Jim Levitt convened a two-day gathering in Boulder to explore ways these institutions can play a role in another area of interest -- land conservation.
The meeting included about three dozen senior professors, staff and administrators from universities, colleges and field research stations from places as diverse as China, California, Kenya, Montana, Florida, Arizona, Australia, and New England, to consider the role that their organizations play as conservation catalysts.
     What do such conservation catalysts do?  Among many things, they can be extraordinarily effective at bringing together players in the public, private, non-profit and academic sectors to coordinate the vision and implementation of large landscape conservation initiatives, says Levitt. At the University of Arizona, for example, researchers have played a catalytic role in bringing together researchers from the United States and Mexico to better understand conditions throughout the endangered Colorado River Delta, and to begin bringing that dessicated region back to life. Similarly, a broad array of students and faculty at the University of Montana have had a decades-long impact on the progress made in conserving the Crown of the Continent ecosystem that spans some 19 million acres across the borders of Montana, Alberta and British Columbia.
     These and other university, college and research station-related large landscape initiatives help to link together large and small parcels of land and bodies of water across boundary lines, sectors, governmental jurisdictions and even national borders to achieve enduring and measurable conservation outcomes. "Large landscape" initiatives are typically further characterized by careful attention to local culture, distinctive and diverse disciplinary approaches, and strategic significance to the future of conservation efforts in their home region.
     The Lincoln Institute plans a series of conferences, books, and resources made available online to further explore this role for universities, colleges and field research stations around the world.

Lessons from an unbuilt beltway

A little over forty years ago, Boston said no to the Inner Belt -- an eight-lane freeway that would have blasted through the urban fabric from south of downtown, through Cambridge, and reconnecting with Interstate 93 north of the city in Somerville. It was the era of urban renewal and auto-centric transportation planning, and the roadways were being sketched out with great zeal -- a Southwest Expressway would bring I-95 to Back Bay, and Route 2 would extend through Cambridge to be another spoke for the wheel. But Republican Governor Francis W. Sargent called it all off.
     He didn't want to lose the federal funding, of course -- and indeed the fear of that prompted many a metropolitan area to plunge ahead with urban freeway construction, its related jobs, and the promise of economic development. Sargent dispatched a top official, Alan Altshuler, now a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School and Graduate School of Design, and for a time dean of the GSD, to get a law passed effectively allowing the transfer of funds from highway projects to transit projects. The result was the extension of the Red Line, station modernization, and ultimately the relocation of the Orange Line -- underneath the very corridor where the Southwest Expressway was supposed to run.
    The transition from highway to transit infrastructure is a story that is still unfolding. Indeed, there's an inherent logic in the Inner Belt: its alignment has for years been considered for a circumferential transit route known as the Urban Ring, which would bring thousands of workers to their jobs who now have to go all the way into the central hub of the transit system in downtown Boston, and back out again. That project was never built, either -- in part because of a lingering reticence over the investments and disruption of infrastructure of any kind. Our essay with further reflections on all this appears today at The Atlantic Monthly's online site, The Atlantic Cities.

Helping economies in transition

     The Lincoln Institute's Valuation and Taxation Department conducted a week-long course in Slovenia last month, "Market Value-Based Taxation of Real Property: Lessons from International Experience," for public officials from Eastern European countries. An international faculty of experts from Estonia, Poland and Northern Ireland joined Institute fellows Joan Youngman, Jane Malme, and Sally Powers to explore the benefits and challenges of market value-based property taxes and to consider strategies for their successful implementation. Course participants included public officials from six countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Kosovo, Serbia, and Slovenia. The course, which addresses the fiscal, legal, poitical, social and administrative issues facing countries in economic transition that are considering or have introduced value-based taxation, was held at the Center of Excellence in Finance in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The center was established in 2001 to provide training, research, and assistance to regional officials dealing with public financial management and central banking, and to allow them to work with international experts in these fields.

The contested city

The annual Journalists Forum on Land and the Built Environment concluded last weekend, wrapping up two days with some fifty writers, architecture critics, and editors. The theme of the forum, co-sponsored by the Lincoln Institute, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, and Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, was The Contested City. Highlights:
Clash at town hall. Paul Farmer, president of the American Planning Association, Samuel R. Staley from the DeVoe Moore Center at Florida State University, and Lincoln Institute senior fellow Armando Carbonell explored what was driving the attacks on local planning and sustainability by Tea Party activists, moderated by Kate Zernike, reporter for The New York Times and author of "Boiling Mad:Inside Tea Party America." The panel agreed planners need to do a better job communicating, though building consensus is increasingly challening.
     The role of the arts. Elizabeth Currid-Halkett from the University of Southern California, and author of The Warhol Economy, showed how the fashion industry and the arts are powerful drivers of urban economies. Roger Cummings, a graffiti artist from JuxtapositionArts in Minneapolis, explored the sometimes controversial role of the public artist, from chalk drawings to “yarn bombing,” in the life of the city.
     Pension reform. Rhode Island state treasurer Gina M. Raimondo recounted the Ocean State’s initiative to overhaul the pension system, which, like in virtually every state, was on its way to bankrupting state and local government. Rhode Island faced a $7 billion unfunded liability, and 30 cents of every tax dollar going to generous pensions to retired public employees.
     Occupying public space. Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The New York Times, led a panel on protest, free speech, and public space in the city, with the GSD’s Jerold S. Kayden, author of Privately Owned Public Space, and Daniel D'Oca from Interboro Partners.
     The just city. Toni L. Griffin, director of the J. Max Bond Center at the Spitzer School of Architecture, The City College of New York, mapped patterns of segregation and inequity …
     The City 2.0. Using technology to foster public participation in planning, and to make urban life easier and more efficient, was the topic of the presentation by Frank Hebbert from Open Plans. Hebbert is a co-author of Opening Access to Scenario Planning Tools. Also in attendance was Dan Mitchell from the TED Prize, which this year established The City 2.0, an online clearinghouse for shaping the 21st century city.
     Leading the contested city. Former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley said the key ingredients for a successful city included education, a good business climate, infrastructure, and sustainability.
     Temporary urbanism and city parks. Rahul Mehrotra, chairman of the Department of Urban Planning and Urban Design at the GSD, and an expert on Mumbai, shared his ideas about the “kinetic city” and new ways of thinking about the formal and informal city in the megacities of the developing world. Peter Harnik from the Trust for Public Land and author of Urban Green, caleld for a "funding quilt" to support great city parks, which he said "beat a yard by a mile." 
     Redistricting the contested city. Michael P. McDonald from George Mason University and the Brookings Institution showed how community input through tools such as the Public Mapping Project can counter intensifying gerrymandering. Kelli Lundgren, RepresentMe Utah recounted the citizens effort there to make the Salt Lake City area more of a coherent “doughnut” rather than “pizza slices.”
     Priming the pump. Joan Youngman, Daphne Kenyon, and Adam Langley from the Lincoln Institute shared research for the forthcoming Policy Focus Report Rethinking Property Tax Incentives for Business, suggesting there was little transparency in the popular practice of offering property tax incentives to businesses making location decisions – and little evidence of benefits in terms of jobs and economic development.
     All things digital. Kara Swisher from All Things D and the Wall Street Journal brought the gathering up to date on the continuing digital transformation in the media industry, suggesting that print was inexorably on the way out, and that most media consumption will be on mobile devices and tablets.
     Robert Hammond, co-founder of Friends of the High Line, was the dinner speaker at the Nieman Foundation’s Lippmann House, and told the story of one of the most successful park projects in recent memory – the transformation of an elevated freight rail line that was set for demolition. A key question was whether any city can have its own High Line, and how to pay for it, including the potential for value capture.
     Participants Roger Showley from the San Diego Union-Tribune, Garth Stapley from McClatchy Newspapers, and Josh Stephens from California Planning and Development Report, writing in Planetizen, all filed dispatches exploring the themes further.