This issue explores Maryland’s smart growth programs and a new land use reform initiative that the state is trying out; the costs, benefits, and policy framework of housing demolition and replacement projects; and the effects of informal land markets on property taxation in Latin America.

This issue looks at land use efficiency, food security, and farmland preservation in China; and lessons learned about the effects of large-scale interventions on urban development in Brazil. It also attempts to answer the long-standing, critical question of who actually bears the burden of residential property taxes.

This issue looks at the need for regionalistic approaches to planning in New England and elsewhere in the U.S.; the goals and challenges of using territorial and multipurpose cadastres; and how tax increment financing can serve as a tool for local economic development in North America.

This issue explores the relationships between economic development, infrastructure, and land taxation in the U.S.; informal settlements, and overall land and housing challenges, in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro; and acquisition and redevelopment strategies for transforming vacant and abandoned properties.

This issue looks at strategies to stabilize property taxes in volatile U.S. real estate markets; the fundamentals and policy implications of North America’s “megapolitan” (large metropolitan) areas; the evolution of housing finance policy in Chile; and the tax reform possibilities of China’s inadequate property tax system.

This issue explores spatial development patterns in the context of the North American megapolis; current trends of U.S. conservation easements and possibilties for their reinvention; and the role of community land trusts in providing and sustaining affordable housing.