Do Plans Matter? (Working Paper)

Effects of Light Rail Plans on Land Values in Station Areas

Author(s): Knaap, Gerrit J., Lewis D. Hopkins and Chengri Ding
Publication Date: November 1999

20 pages; Inventory ID WP99GK1; English


Do Plans Matter?	258 KB

Abstract

In 1998, Knaap, Hopkins, and Donaghy developed a model in which plans serve as a means by which local governments provide information to landowners and thereby increase social welfare. In this paper we adapted their model to the announcement of light rail plans for the Western corridor of the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. We found that land values near planned station locations rose following the announcement of station location plans. From these results we infer that plans can serve as a means of coordinating transportation and land use investments and that plans can indeed matter.