Cuba is a striking country. Its historic capital city of Havana boasts 400 years of architectural heritage. Many areas are in a state of sad decay but some represent very creative approaches to preservation and economic development. Because of the focus on rural development after the 1959 revolution, Cuba did not experience the same kind of popular migration from the countryside to the cities as did other parts of Latin America. What modern redevelopment did occur happened largely outside the historic core of Havana. The good news is that the city’s architectural heritage is still standing; the bad news is that it is just barely standing.

Architects and planners in Cuba are struggling with the basic tasks of improving infrastructure and housing while encouraging economic development appropriate to their socialist vision. They are developing models of neighborhood transformation through local organizing and self-help programs, and are creating models of “value capture” in the process of historic preservation and tourism development.

Through connections with the Group for the Integrated Development of the Capital (Grupo para el Desarrollo Integral de la Capital, GDIC), nine environmental design professionals traveled to Cuba in June to explore the issues of decay and innovation in the built and natural environment. The team included nine of the eleven 1997-98 Loeb Fellows from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

The Loeb Fellowship in Advanced Environmental Studies was established in 1970 through the generosity of Harvard alumnus John L. Loeb. The Fellowship annually awards ten to twelve leaders in the design and environmental professions with support for a year of independent study at Harvard University. A recent tradition of the Fellowship program is for the Fellows to take a trip together at the end of the academic year, to solidify their ties developed over the year, explore a new environment together, and share their knowledge and expertise with others.

The Loeb Fellows who traveled to Cuba have a variety of interests that together represent a cross-section of the environmental design professions:

• Charles Birnbaum, a landscape architect who advocates the preservation of significant landscapes.
• Toni Griffin, an architect concerned with economic and community development in urban neighborhoods.
• Pamela Hawkes, an architect specializing in historic preservation.
• Daniel Hernandez, an architect who creates affordable housing.
• Leonard McGee, a community leader who works to transform and improve inner-city communities.
• Julio Peterson, a community developer interested in economic development in inner cities and developing countries.
• Peter Pollock, a city planner who specializes in growth management issues.
• Anne Raver, a journalist interested in people’s relationship with the natural environment.
• Jean Rogers, an environmental engineer and planner who focuses on ameliorating the impacts of industrialization on the environment.

The Fellows were hosted in Havana by GDIC, which was created in 1987 as a small, interdisciplinary team of experts advising the city government on urban policies. “The group intended since its very beginning to promote a new model for the built environment that would be less imposing, more decentralized and participatory, ecologically sound and economically feasible-in short, holistically sustainable,” according to Mario Coyula, an architect, planner and vice-president of GDIC. He and his GDIC colleagues put together a series of informative seminars and tours for the Fellows in Havana, and made arrangements for them to visit planners and designers in the cities of Las Terrazas, Matanzas, and Trinidad.

Several foundations and groups lent support to the project: the Arca Foundation, the William Reynolds Foundation, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Loeb Fellowship Alumni Association, and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design Loeb Fellowship Program. Each Loeb Fellow will write an essay on a relevant area of research and its relationship to conditions in Cuba. These papers will be compiled and made available to GDIC, Harvard University and potentially to others through publication in a journal or special report.

Peter Pollock is director of community planning for the city of Boulder, Colorado. In 1997-98 he was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard and a visiting fellow at the Lincoln Institute.

Imagine two communities in the Rocky Mountain region in the late 1860s. One is located along the transcontinental railroad, the other is 100 miles to the south. Which community would come to dominate the region by the turn of the century? Counterintuitively, the latter community did. There, aggressive entrepreneurs and community leaders orchestrated the completion of a spur linking the town to the railroad and then commenced a promotional campaign on the community’s behalf. Over time, that town, Denver, flourished, while the other, Cheyenne, did not. Denver leaders did not rely on chance. Instead they mobilized public resources to pursue their vision of Denver as a major city.

As product cycles ebb and flow, populations and firms migrate, natural resources peter out and consumer tastes change, cities either adapt to their changing environments or succumb to the invisible hand of the marketplace. Local elected and appointed officials can shape their cities by deciding whether or not to implement nonmarket, city-sponsored development.

Politics is important because these city officials either respond to a tax-services imbalance or they pursue an image or vision of their city’s future, its cityscape. Although city-sponsored development might lower business costs and spur economic growth, such development is not an automatic response to changing economic circumstances. Rather, public economic development is the result of a purposive political decision and is undertaken selectively.

Mobilizing Public Capital

City governments search for an equilibrium in their relations with the external environment. Governments operate within fixed territorial jurisdictions, but capital is not similarly constrained. To avoid driving business elsewhere, officials must try to maximize services while minimizing taxes. Two factors are important to our argument: (1) efforts to restore the tax-services equilibrium are rooted in a city’s development function, and (2) the decision to mobilize a development tool has to do with the tax-services disequilibrium and is unrelated to employment and income issues.

Threats to a city’s revenue stream disrupt the tax-services balance and most assuredly trigger the search for an appropriate development policy to redress the imbalance. But for some city officials, a perceptual concern motivates their actions. They may want their city to move into a higher orbit or plane within its “system of cities,” the spatial and market area within which cities compete to provide goods and services. These city leaders hope to expand their city’s influence beyond the immediate region rather than cast its fate to the workings of the marketplace. They actively intervene in hopes their city will catapult to a higher level or regain lost status within its relevant system.

City Types

A city government’s orientation reflects both its leaders’ aspirations and its tax-services balance. We have defined four city types based on levels of economic stress and political activism to promote development. In “survivalist cities” development decisions are triggered by a tax-services imbalance. These cities experience economic and fiscal stress and employ a greater-than-average number of development tools. In “market cities” that also suffer economic and fiscal stress, officials do not implement many economic development tools but instead leave the city’s economic fortunes to the private marketplace. “Expansionist cities” are in fairly healthy economic shape, but they mobilize more economic development tools than the average city out of the desire to become a higher order city. “Maintenance cities” also enjoy economic and fiscal health, but city officials refrain from mobilizing many economic development tools because they want to control or manage growth.

Duluth, Minnesota, is an example of a “survivalist city.” It was mired in economic and social malaise after the mid-1970s shutdown of U.S. Steel and many subsequent plant closings. Unemployment was well above the national average, emigration decreased the population by nearly 16 percent in a decade’s time (1970-1982), and general fund revenues declined in constant dollars. By the early 1980s, insufficient revenues and the prospect of lower services triggered Duluth’s response to become exceptionally active in promoting itself as a business location. Development projects ranged from sprucing up the downtown business district through a storefront renovation program to involvement in constructing a several hundred million dollar paper mill.

Since the 1970s, declining manufacturing employment in the industrial belt hit Springfield, Ohio, a “market city,” particularly hard. However, city officials there have been hesitant to invest in public development because of fiscal realities and the dominant political culture, which favors limited government involvement. They clearly understand that by not risking city resources in the development process, it is possible that Springfield will “ratchet down” the hierarchy in its relevant system of cities.

In Huntsville, Alabama, an “expansionist city,” there are no reservations about using the public sector to prime the economic development pump. But unlike in Duluth, Huntsville officials are not responding to economic decline. Instead, their motivation is a vision of Huntsville as the major high-tech, regional city of the new South. To pursue that vision, the city has constructed an economic development program around extant defense installations and the aerospace industry. Huntsville markets itself as a limitless place, as a community reaching for the stars.

Santa Barbara, California, is a “maintenance city” guided by its vision as a Refuge from the Commonplace. It does not offer money or underwrite programs for commercial rehabilitations. It provides no low-interest subsidies for business. It offers no tax abatements. It has no marketing program for economic development. It conducts no industrial recruitment. There is no program in Santa Barbara to leverage private investment, nor is there a public/private partnership. City assistance or involvement in development often is nothing more than approval of a proposed project. The city’s dominant policy instrument is the comprehensive plan. Zoning variances, manipulation of the parking supply, and the imposition of fees are additional tools. The city does not promote development the way other cities do; instead, Santa Barbara molds it.

Politics Matters

The envisioned city of tomorrow is not static; it evolves in response to shifting economies and political coalitions. A city’s underlying economic base, its governing coalition, and the vision of its leaders are in constant tension with other conflicting opportunities, possibilities and visions. A change in city leadership and the governing elite, the closing or downsizing of a large firm, or a substantial change in state aid or in unfunded mandates will, among other factors, influence the vision of the city’s leaders and affect the underlying economy. These changes in vision and market adjustments, then, profoundly affect a city’s approach to economic development. The mobilization of public capital as a mechanism for achieving the vision may change as well.

When voters replaced the leadership of Boise, Idaho, with more proactive officials in the mid-1980s, for example, a new vision was one of the most obvious results. The new mayoral-led coalition talked about regional prominence, and boldly marshaled public capital in support of development projects. The city used development tools and sponsored projects that were vastly different from those of the previous regime. In effect, Boise was transformed from a “maintenance city” to an “expansionist city.”

Thus, politics plays an important role in explaining the path and direction a city chooses. Local officials may perceive a relevant orbit and then try to mobilize public capital in order to keep their city in (or move it to) that orbit. Or, they may choose to allow the workings of the marketplace to determine the city’s orbit. In either case, market forces, a city’s comparative advantage, the relative factor prices of land, labor, and capital—in short, the underlying local economy—influence these perceptions and the city’s approach to development policy.

Political leaders’ images of the good society and their perceptions of their city’s relevant orbit are the foundations for a city’s economic development functions and for the political decision to mobilize public capital. City investment in, and regulation of, development projects is the most effective means by which a city controls and molds its growth in pursuit of its future cityscape.

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Ann O’M. Bowman is professor in the Department of Government and International Affairs at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. Michael A. Pagano is professor of political science at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. This article is excerpted in part from their book Cityscapes and Capital: The Politics of Urban Development (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).

Supporters of land taxation view it as an efficient and effective means of financing government, and the concept has wide appeal among public finance scholars. Many economists, including several Nobel Prize winners, actively endorse this method of taxation, which taxes land value separately and instead of buildings and improvements. At least from an academic perspective, then, the case for the efficiency and fairness of a land-based tax system seems irrefutable.

Despite that support, the concept of land taxation has not been widely embraced in the United States. Property tax bases are set by state constitutional or statutory law, so local governments cannot implement a land tax, or its split-rate variant, without authorization from their respective state legislatures. Other than a handful of Pennsylvania cities that have adopted split-rate or two-rate tax systems, no American jurisdictions currently place higher tax burdens on land than on buildings and other improvements. Virginia recently responded to interest in two-rate taxation with legislation allowing two local governments to adopt graded tax programs, but they have not yet done so. While split-rate taxation is discussed periodically as a reform measure, there are no current proposals for its adoption awaiting action before a state legislature (Brunori and Carr 2002).

Statutory or constitutional enactment of a land tax would entail revising property tax laws that have been substantially unchanged for more than a century. In general, state legislators are cautious about implementing dramatic reforms in any public policy area, and comprehensive tax reform has been a particularly elusive goal. Adoption of split-rate or land taxation would be a dramatic change, requiring significant awareness, advocacy and support in the ranks of the legislature and at the local level.

There are few areas of government finance in which scholarly opinion and actual public policy diverge so dramatically. This situation prompted me to undertake two nationwide research surveys. The first survey sought to ascertain the level of knowledge of land taxation on the part of the nation’s state legislators. Without an understanding of the issues presented by the taxation of land, legislators are unlikely to champion, advocate or even vote for such measures. I also surveyed local elected officials, because state legislators will not advocate any reforms without constituent support. Moreover, since the reforms at issue will affect primarily local government finances, any legislative body seeking to reform a tax system will solicit the views and advice of local officials.

The Survey Questions

To gauge general awareness of the concept of land value taxation, the survey began with a broad question, describing it as “taxing the full value of land but exempting buildings, structures and other improvements from tax.” The next question narrowed the scope to determine familiarity with split-rate taxation, the version of land taxation practiced in Pennsylvania and authorized in two Virginia municipalities. Because it entails less dramatic reforms, split-rate taxation is the version of land taxation most likely to be adopted in the U.S. This concept was described as “taxing land at a higher rate than buildings, structures and other improvements.”

Legislative research has long found that state lawmakers are likely to support policies that they believe will foster economic development and oppose policies perceived to deter development (Beamer 1999). Taxing land at a higher rate than improvements has historically been thought to encourage building and investment by eliminating or reducing the tax burdens of improving the land. Thus, the third question asked for the respondents’ opinion on the effect that taxing improvements at a lower rate than land would have on economic development, defined as capital investment and job creation.

The proliferation of suburban sprawl is a growing concern among legislators and local officials across the country. The vast academic literature suggests that policy makers view sprawl unfavorably and that most officials think that policies that promote sprawl are unsound. Some public finance scholars believe that adopting split-rate tax policies will limit the negative effects of sprawl (Brueckner 2001). If this belief is true, split-rate taxation could play an important role in the continuing debate over policies intended to deter suburban sprawl. Question four asked what effect taxing improvements at a lower rate than land would have on sprawl. Sprawl was not defined in the question because the term can refer to a number of developments affecting density, suburban growth, loss of open space and decrease in population. Indeed, scholars have lamented the lack of a single operational definition of sprawl. Still, the perception of sprawl as an undesirable land use pattern and policy outcome warranted inclusion of the question in the survey.

Finally, state and local legislators are influenced by the desires and concerns of their constituents. The more important a particular issue is to constituents, the better informed a legislator will become about that issue. Thus, survey participants were asked if during the past year any citizens or organizations had contacted their offices with respect to the issue of split-rate taxation, and if so, whether the constituent supported or opposed the idea.

State and Local Respondents

The first survey focused on state legislators who served on committees with primary responsibility for tax policy and local government finance during the period January–June 2003. There were 106 such committees in the 50 state legislatures, but I excluded those in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Since those states have either adopted or authorized graded tax systems, I assumed that their legislators would be more familiar with the concept and could bias the results.

For the second survey I chose city and county officials from 15 randomly selected local jurisdictions within the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. To insure a national perspective, I also included city council members from the largest city in each state. Again I focused on officials with primary responsibility for implementing and administering public finance policy and excluded all jurisdictions in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The survey questions were sent to 1,284 legislators, of whom 780 responded (see Brunori 2003 for more information on methodology). An identical survey was sent to 3,298 city and county officials, of whom 430 responded. The response rate for the state legislators was far above national standards, and the response rate for the local officials was considerably below national standards, but both were statistically significant.

Before revealing the results of the survey research, I must confess that I entered this project with a bias. Having worked in the state and local tax field my entire professional life, as a lawyer, teacher and journalist, I think about tax policy more than any sane person should and have come to know many state legislators and local public officials. In my experience, these government officials are quite capable of finding revenues to pay the bills, but they generally have little in-depth knowledge of the more philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of tax policy. So I assumed that few of them would understand what I was talking about when I began asking questions about land taxation. After all, I did not think most politicians were using their spare time to read Henry George’s classic book, Progress and Poverty. I was quite surprised at the responses.

The Results

In a country where there are virtually no land tax policies in place, the survey results show that a vast majority of elected political leaders do know about land and split-rate taxation (see Table 1). More surprising, to me at least, most political leaders are aware of the benefits of adopting land tax policies. More than 70 percent of the state legislators and 65 percent of the local government officials responded that they were either very or somewhat familiar with the concept of land value taxation, and 67 percent of state legislators and 65 percent of local officials were very or somewhat familiar with split-rate taxation.

The single most important policy goal (after public safety) that concerns American politicians is economic development. When asked about the relationship between the economy and land taxation, more than 62 percent of state legislators and 76 percent of local government officials replied that adopting a split-rate tax system would promote economic development. About one-quarter of both state and local officials thought that taxing improvements at a lower rate than land would have no effect on economic development. These results are arguably consistent with the conventional view that land taxation would have a benign effect on economic decision making. Only 5 percent of the state legislators and no local officials believed that taxing land at a higher rate would deter economic development.

One of the common misperceptions about land taxation is that it will lead to more sprawl, and many, but not a majority, of the respondents shared that misperception. Forty-one percent of surveyed state legislators and 46 percent of local officials said they believed that adopting a split-rate tax system would lead to more suburban sprawl. About 51 percent of the state legislators and 53 percent of local officials surveyed said that split-rate taxation would have no effect on sprawl or would deter sprawl. The fact that so many respondents believe that split-rate taxation would foster more sprawl, presumably by encouraging development of open space in suburban and rural areas, should be troubling to advocates of land taxation.

Finally, a surprisingly small number of elected political leaders have been contacted by constituents regarding land taxation. Eleven percent of state legislators and 9 percent of local government officials said an individual constituent or organization had contacted them regarding the issue of land-based or split-rate taxation, and all were supporters of the idea.

What Does It All Mean?

What originally sparked my interest in this research project was the disconnect between scholarly opinion about land taxation and political action to promote it. I thought this discrepancy might be the result of ignorance of the concepts of land taxation on the part of state and local political leaders. If state legislators and city council members were unaware of land or graded taxation, then they could not be expected to champion such reforms.

The survey results show, however, that this discrepancy cannot be resolved by looking at level of awareness alone. Most state legislators and local officials involved in public finance and taxation issues are familiar with both land taxation and split-rate taxation, and they know that moving to a split-rate tax system would have a positive effect on economic development. Moreover, a slight majority of those surveyed believe that graded taxes would have no negative effects on sprawl.

Since state and local officials know about land taxation and believe it could lead to positive policy outcomes, why are so few local governments using this method of public finance? It is difficult to answer that question without eliciting views on more technical aspects of land or split-rate taxation. Implementation of land taxation raises complex issues as to the feasibility of adopting major property tax reforms, the effects on other revenue sources, and the administration of a land tax system, particularly with respect to valuation. Solving the mystery as to why more jurisdictions are not exploring the policy of taxing land at a higher rate than improvements may lie in analyzing these important operational factors.

References

Beamer, Glenn. 1999. Creative politics: Taxes and public goods in a federal system. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Brueckner, Jan K. 2001. Property taxation and urban sprawl. In Property taxation and local government finance, Wallace E. Oates, editor. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Brunori, David. 2003. Awareness of land taxation: Survey of state legislators. Working paper. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Brunori, David, and Jennifer Carr. 2002. Valuing land and improvements: State law and local government practices. State Tax Notes (September 30):1023–1033.

David Brunori is contributing editor of State Tax Notes for Tax Analysts in Arlington, Virginia, and research professor of public policy at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. This article is based on research he conducted as part of a David C. Lincoln Fellowship in Land Value Taxation, awarded by the Lincoln Institute.

Past trends will not foretell the future, but charting how state and local finances weathered the 2001 recession suggests viable ways to navigate going forward. Lacking the deficit finance ability of the federal government, states and localities must set a spending course based on anticipated taxes and revenues. An unexpected crisis-like the stock bubble burst at the beginning of this century and the subsequent economic slowdown-that throws budgets into fiscal chaos requires such unpopular bailouts as tax increases or cuts in services and welfare. Did that happen?

Participants at a Lincoln Institute-sponsored conference in March 2007 gathered at the Urban Institute in Washington DC, to discuss the recession and share findings on how states and localities determined various actions and policies to address its impacts. This conference, titled “State and Local Finances after the Storm: Is Smooth Sailing Ahead?”, was also hosted by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, and by the Kellogg School of Management and the Institute for Policy Research, both at Northwestern University.

Canfei He earned his Ph.D. degree in geography from Arizona State University in 2001, and then moved to the University of Memphis, Tennessee, where he taught as an assistant professor. In August 2003, he returned to China as an associate professor in Peking University’s College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and was promoted to full professor in 2009. In addition to his academic duties at Peking University, Dr. He has served as associate director of the Peking University–Lincoln Institute Center for Urban Development and Land Policy since 2007. He is also the associate director of the Economic Geography Specialty Group of the China Geographical Society.

Dr. He’s research interests include multinational corporations, industrial location and spatial clustering of firms, and energy and the environment in China. The World Bank invited him to write a background paper on industrial agglomeration in China for the World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Global Economic Geography.

Dr. He has authored four academic books and his work is published widely in English journals including Regional Studies, Urban Studies, Annals of Regional Science, International Migration Review, Eurasian Geography and Economics, Post-Communist Economies, and China & the World Economy. Dr. He also serves on the editorial board of three journals: Eurasian Geography and Economics, International Urban Planning, and China Regional Economics.

Land Lines: How did you become associated with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and its programs in China?

Canfei He: I learned about the activities of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s recently established China Program from one of my colleagues at Peking University in 2003soon after I returned from the United States. At that time, the Lincoln Institute was working in China on a number of specific programs, and I became involved in several associated research projects.

My official relationship with the Institute began with the establishment of the Peking University–Lincoln Institute Center for Urban Development and Land Policy (PLC) in October 2007. The Institute had been exploring a more long-term partnership with Peking University for some time, and as those discussions progressed, my previous contacts offered opportunities for me to serve as a liaison between the two institutions. I was nominated by Peking University to serve as the associate director with its director, Joyce Yanyun Man, who is also a senior fellow of the Lincoln Institute and director of its Program on the People’s Republic of China. Over the past two years or more, I have been helping to develop the center and coordinate its work with other partners at Peking University, as well as serving as a research fellow of the center.

Land Lines: Why are urban development studies so important in China?

Canfei He: China’s urbanization during the past three decades has been remarkable. As an overwhelmingly rural population in 1978 when reforms began, China is now 45.7 percent urbanized, and the country is projected to be 60 percent urbanized by 2020. This means that China’s cities will need to accommodate more than 100 million new urban residents in this decade.

Market forces, local forces, and global forces are all conspiring to influence the pattern of China’s urbanization and development. Accompanying large-scale and rapid urbanization are revolutionary spatial, structural, industrial, institutional, and environmental changes in an incredibly brief span of time. The multiplicity of these driving forces makes the study of urban development in China both complex and challenging. The next wave of urbanization will have far-reaching implications for the country’s future development, and thus there is a critical need for more high-quality, objective research on the subject.

Land Lines: What are some of the most unusual aspects of urban development in China?

Canfei He: China’s current urban development is quite different institutionally from that of most Western countries. Urbanization in China has occurred at the same time that its economy has become market-oriented, globalized, and decentralized. Whereas most Western urbanization occurred in a period of greater economic isolation, China’s urban development has been directly influenced by international investment and global economic trends.

A second factor is China’s hukou system of personal registration that limits the mobility of its people in part by linking their access to social services to the location of their registration. This system thus presents an institutional barrier that inhibits rural-urban migration despite ongoing reforms.

Regional decentralization is another important aspect that, combined with the state and collective ownership of land, has allowed local governments to play a distinct role in China’s urban development. Land acquisition fees resulting from the sale of multi-decade leases for the use and development of state-owned lands have generated enormous revenues, and have been a critical source of municipal financial resources for urban infrastructure investment. This fee-based revenue, in turn, creates incentives that have promoted even more intense urbanization. On the other hand, the major planning role afforded to local governments in China means that urban planning practice lacks consistency across the country’s diverse regions, and is often hostage to local interest groups.

China is facing increasing global challenges and pressures from many sources including multinational corporations, nongovernmental organizations, global environmental standards, and rising energy prices. These challenges may increase the costs of urban development, but at the same time they may encourage a more sustainable process of urbanization.

Land Lines: How do you approach urban development studies in China through your own research?

Canfei He: China’s urbanization goes hand in hand with its industrialization, and foreign investment has played a significant role in the country’s growth. Urbanization demands labor, land, capital, and technology, as well as supporting institutions. Consequently, there are myriad approaches to studying urban development in China that focus on a particular factor or set of factors.

My own research interests fall within the capital and institutional approaches. Specifically, I investigate industrial agglomeration and foreign direct investment in Chinese cities by highlighting the institutional environment of economic transition. Investigating the elements driving industrial agglomeration in different cities and understanding the locational preferences of foreign and domestic firms are crucial for designing coherent and focused urban planning policies.

For instance, my research on foreign direct investment in real estate development and the locational preferences of international banks found that local market conditions and regional institutions largely determine the locational preferences of multinational services. This type of observation can be of use to planners and politicians in China seeking to foster the growth of the service industry.

With the increasing emphasis on global climate change and acknowledgement of the environmental impacts of China’s first 30 years of reform and development, I am also becoming more involved in research on the environmental impacts of urbanization, including energy consumption and carbon emissions. China has made a commitment to reduce its CO₂ emission by 40–45 percent per unit of GDP by 2020, relative to 2005. This means that building low-carbon and energy-efficient cities is another goal on the already lengthy list of challenges that includes servicing, housing, and employing the country’s millions of future urban dwellers.

Land Lines: Given this ongoing international dialogue, how can China best learn from Western urbanization experiences?

Canfei He: We recognize that there is much to learn from the West, including alternative approaches to land policy, housing policy, transportation policy, environmental policy, suburbanization, and the development and planning of megacity regions. China has the benefit of using the West’s experience as a roadmap to help it avoid many of the problems that have arisen in Western cities, such as urban sprawl and gridlock. That economic, political, and geographic diversity offers a wealth of reference points for China’s cities that should not be ignored and can help China avoid problems that have plagued many Western metropolises.

However, it is necessary to research the applicability of particular international experiences, considering the uniqueness of China’s history and culture. Too often analyses of Western urbanization are presented as a blueprint for China, when in fact institutional, economic, and political differences mean that, for one reason or another, those solutions are impractical or unfeasible.

Land Lines: Why is China’s urbanization and urban development so important to the West?

Canfei He: China’s urbanization will be one of the most important dynamics of the twenty-first century, not only for China but also for the West and the rest of the world. Millions of newly affluent consumers and empowered global citizens will exert significant new demands on the world’s finite natural resources in several ways.

First, with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, China and the world committed themselves to halving the number of people living on less than $1 per day by 2015. Given China’s large number of rural poor, the country’s urbanization and economic development will be instrumental in meeting this important goal, as well as in achieving other goals such as those related to education and improving children’s health. Only cities have the institutional reach and financial capacity to meet these goals on a large scale.

Second, much has been made of the gulf in understanding between China and the West in recent years. Urbanization and urban development will help to integrate China further into the global community, but it may also create more opportunities for cultural friction. The West has a vested interest in seeing that China urbanizes in an atmosphere that encourages openness and intercultural exchange.

Third, history demonstrates that urbanization entails a much greater demand for energy and other resources as living standards rise and as consumption and dietary patterns change. It has become a cliché to say that “as China goes, so goes the world,” but China’s urbanization and its related environmental impacts will have direct implications for the West and the rest of the world.

The recent memory of $150 per barrel of oil shows that this future demand is likely to put great stress on international energy markets and the global economy. This latent demand also has broad implications for China’s CO₂ emissions and for global climate change. The United States and China are key to any real hope of keeping the increase in average global temperatures less than 2 degrees Celsius warmer than preindustrial levels, as proposed at the recent climate conference in Copenhagen. Whereas the high level of development in Western countries means that changes happen incrementally, China’s rapid urbanization offers hope to limit the world’s future emissions by making significant changes now as the country develops.

Sustaining local communities will require mechanisms to envision and plan for the future and to engage residents in the process. Scenario planning is an increasingly effective way to address these efforts, and Western Lands and Communities, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s joint venture with the Sonoran Institute, is working to advance the necessary tools.

Scenario Planning to Address Uncertainty

Land use decisions and planning efforts are critical as communities look 20 to 50 years into the future to guide policy choices and public investments that are sustainable across economic, social, and environmental dimensions. As uncertainty increases and available resources decrease, it becomes ever more important to consider the full range of emerging conditions and to strive to ensure our ability to respond to those changes, adopt policies, and pursue investments that will be resilient across a variety of potential futures.

Key areas of uncertainty include population and demographic changes, economic trends, climatic variability and change, resource costs and availability, land markets, housing preferences, housing affordability, and the fiscal health of local governments. Simultaneous with increasing uncertainty and decreasing resources, or perhaps in part because of them, decision makers face conflicting perspectives on desired futures and on the role of government in providing services and infrastructure as well as regulation and planning.

Increased polarization means that more civic engagement and an informed and supportive public are needed to ensure stable policies and adequate investments in a community’s future. Scenario planning offers a mechanism to address these needs and issues of potential uncertainty and conflict. Fortunately, as the scope and complexity of planning and the demand for broader engagement have increased, advances in computing power and public access to technology are making new and more powerful tools available.

The Lincoln Institute has a long history of supporting the development of planning tools and publishing the results (Hopkins and Zapata 2007; Campoli and MacLean 2007; Brail 2008; Kwartler and Longo 2008; Condon, Cavens, and Miller 2009). This article covers lessons learned from the use of scenario planning tools in several projects undertaken by Western Lands and Communities (WLC), as well as mechanisms to expand their application.

Superstition Vistas

Superstition Vistas is a 275-square-mile expanse of vacant state-owned trust land on the urbanizing edge of the Phoenix metropolitan area (figure 1). State trust lands such as this site in Arizona are key to future growth patterns because the state owns 60 percent of the available land in the path of development. Colorado and New Mexico to a lesser degree face similar opportunities with their state trust lands (Culp, Laurenzi, and Tuell 2006). Creative thinking about the future of Superstition Vistas began to gain momentum in 2003, and the Lincoln Institute, through the WLC joint venture, was an early proponent of these efforts (Propst 2008).

Initial WLC objectives for Superstition Vistas scenario planning included capacity building, tool development, and opportunities to catalyze a planning process. More specifically, we sought to:

• look at the land in a bold, holistic, and comprehensive manner;
• advance the Arizona State Land Department’s capacity to conduct large-scale planning and establish an example for other state land agencies facing urban growth opportunities;
• design a model sustainable development;
• advance scenario planning tools and illustrate their use;
• catalyze and inform debates about modernizing state trust land planning and development management; and
• stimulate a larger discussion about the Arizona Sun Corridor megaregion.

WLC, along with regional partnerships, neighboring jurisdictions, the regional electric and water utility, two private hospital providers, and a local mining company, formed the Superstition Vistas (SV) Steering Committee to advance the planning effort, secure funding, and hire a consulting team. The consultants, working with the committee over a three-year period, conducted extensive public outreach and values research, assembled data on Superstition Vistas, developed and refined a series of alternative land use scenarios for the development of a community of 1 million residents, evaluated the impacts of the different scenarios, and produced a composite scenario for the site.

The Arizona State Land Department (the landowner) adapted the consultants’ work to prepare a draft conceptual plan for Superstition Vistas in May 2011 and submitted a proposed comprehensive plan amendment to Pinal County. The county is now considering the proposed amendment and its Board of Supervisors is expected to act in late 2011.

Sustainability Lessons

The scenario analysis, utilizing enhancements supported by WLC, identified the most important factors in shaping development patterns and potential conflicts among desired outcomes (figure 2). The inclusion of individual building and infrastructure costs for the alternative scenarios facilitated examining the sensitivity of varying these key factors and the cost effectiveness of four increasing levels of energy and water efficiency in each building type.

The scenarios also examined the impact of urban form on vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Scenario model outputs included land use indicators, energy and water use, VMT, carbon emissions, and construction costs. This analysis revealed the “low-hanging fruit” for sustainability improvements. The consulting team, working with the Steering Committee, identified a number of lessons that illustrate the value of scenario planning tools and can be applied to other efforts to design more sustainable and efficient urban areas (Superstition Vistas Consulting Team 2011).

1. Create mixed-use centers to reduce travel times, energy use, and the carbon footprint. Mixed-use centers along public transportation routes and close to homes and neighborhoods are one of the most effective ways to reduce travel times, energy use, and the resulting carbon footprint. Smaller homes, more compact forms of urban development, and multimodal transportation systems all create similar benefits (figure 3). However, the scenario modeling for Superstition Vistas demonstrated that mixed-use centers would be substantially more important than increased density in affecting transportation choices, energy use, and the carbon footprint.

2. Foster upfront investments and high-quality jobs to catalyze economic success. A strong local economy and a diverse balance of nearby jobs, housing, and shops are critical for a sustainable community, especially when high-quality jobs are provided at the beginning of development. Significant upfront public investment and public-private partnerships can supply critical infrastructure and have an enormous impact on shaping development and increasing the value of state trust land. State owned trust land could also provide unique opportunities for patient capital, with enhanced trust land management authorities providing access to resources for upfront capital investment and the ability to recapture these investments when the land is sold or leased later at a higher value.

3. Provide multimodal transportation infrastructure and regional connections to facilitate efficient growth. Another critical step is determining how to phase transportation improvements as the region grows and the market can support increased services. Phased components may include buses first, then Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), with rights-of-way set aside for eventual commuter or light-rail corridors. Identifying and building multimodal transportation corridors and infrastructure prior to sales for residential and commercial development should establish the cohesiveness of the entire area and enable the evolution to more capital-intensive transportation infrastructure as the community matures.

4. Design efficient buildings that save water and energy resources and reduce the community’s carbon footprint. Incorporating construction costs and return on investment (ROI) data in resource planning allows for financial feasibility and cost-benefit calculations. The consulting team modeled four levels of water and energy use (baseline, good, better, best) for each scenario and building type. Results demonstrated that investments in energy efficiency would be better spent on residential than commercial and industrial buildings. An additional finding showed that building centralized renewable power generation may be a better investment than extreme conservation.

5. Offer housing choices that meet the needs of a diverse population. Ensuring a viable community means meeting the needs of all potential residents with a broad variety of development types and prices that local workers can afford and that allow for adjustments under future market conditions.

6. Incorporate flexibility to respond to changing circumstances. A challenge for large-scale master plans that will take shape in multiple phases over 50 years or more is how to plan so the development itself can evolve and even redevelop over time. Plan implementation needs to include mechanisms to limit future NIMBY (not in my back yard) problems for necessary infill and redevelopment projects.

Procedural Lessons

The visioning process for Superstition Vistas involved planning a completely new city or region of communities in a vacant area with a single public landowner and no existing population. Given the recent economic downturn, as well as the limited capacity of the state agency to bring land to market, development of this area will likely be postponed for a number of years. Despite these particular conditions, procedural lessons learned in the project to date are relevant to other long-term and large-scale efforts, and to the expanded use of scenario planning for community decision making in general.

Agreed-upon procedures and planning processes become increasingly important as the planning and development time period grows and the number of stakeholders increases. Significant changes in participants, perspectives, and external factors, such as the recent collapse of the development economy, should be expected in any long-term, multiparty project. Such challenges need to be considered and incorporated into project tasks.

1. Design for change. Long-term projects need to accommodate changes in stakeholders, decision makers, and even political perspectives during the course of planning and implementation. Projects would benefit enormously from anticipating such changes, agreeing on mechanisms to transfer knowledge to new participants, establishing certain criteria and decisions that new stakeholders would be expected to follow, understanding how to deal with political or market conditions that will change, and building resiliency for such factors into the alternative scenarios themselves.

2. Consider governance. This is an issue for planning and implementation efforts and for the political decision-making structure of a new community. In building a new city it is important to consider how to create a governance system capable of implementing a consistent, comprehensive vision for a community that does not yet exist.

3. Incorporate new community designs into local and regional comprehensive plans. It is also critical to consider how a project at the scale of Superstition Vistas, with up to 1 million residents and a buildout plan of 50 years or more, can be incorporated into the framework of a typical county comprehensive plan. Scenarios and visions must reflect ideas and plans that local jurisdictions will be politically willing and administratively able to incorporate into their planning processes.

4. Phase development. Communities need to establish mechanisms that allow the adoption of a long-term buildout vision and then incorporate a series of flexible and adaptable phased plans to implement that vision in appropriate stages.

5. Plan for market changes. Market conditions, housing preferences, and employment opportunities will evolve, and large-scale projects with creative and compelling visions may even create their own demand. No one knows what future markets may offer, so consideration of alternative markets and adaptable community designs are critical. Projected housing mixes and estimates of development absorption need to be flexible and not based only on current preferences and trends.

6. Connect to common values. Demonstrating how development proposals connect to common visions and values that are shared and stable over time is also important. For Superstition Vistas, values such as an opportunity for healthy lifestyles and choices for residents across the socioeconomic spectrum were found to be broadly accepted. Planners also need to recognize values that are more controversial or may be transient and likely to change.

Challenges and Opportunities

The WLC experience in planning for Superstition Vistas has been successful in several respects. The community came together through the Steering Committee to develop a consensus vision that represented multijurisdictional cooperation around sustainable “smart” growth. Neighboring communities, at the request of the state land commissioner, deferred any consideration of annexation. In addition, the Arizona State Land Department developed a plan for a geographic scale, time horizon, and level of comprehensiveness well beyond anything attempted previously. However, the proposed comprehensive plan amendment for Superstition Vistas is at best a first step toward a vision for a community of up to 1 million people.

The Arizona State Land Department has been unable, at least so far, to push the envelope very far on new and more creative ways to conceptualize large-scale developments that could enhance the economic value of state trust lands and improve regional urban form. The recent collapse of land and housing markets throughout the country has also impacted this project and local perceptions of future growth potential. Since the overall effort to conceptualize and implement development plans for Superstition Vistas is just beginning, initial on-the-ground development is not expected for at least a decade. There will be multiple opportunities to build on these planning efforts to bring bolder and more comprehensive visions forward as the real estate economy recovers and the land becomes ripe for development.

Scenario planning and effective visualizations become both more important and more challenging to achieve when conducting larger and longer-term visioning exercises. Visualizations that provide compelling depictions of activity centers and higher-density, mixed-use neighborhoods can help to gain public acceptance. Effective mechanisms are also needed to convey to current participants that the planning process is imagining community characteristics and housing and lifestyle preferences for their grandchildren or great-grandchildren many years in the future.

As noted earlier, upfront investments in transportation, economic development, education, and utility services can significantly shape a community, serve as a catalyst for higher-level employment, and earn high returns. To achieve this potential, mechanisms are needed to facilitate these investments, whether on private lands or state trust lands. Continued work on the contributory value of land conservation, infrastructure investment, planning, and ecosystem services, as well as the integration of this information into scenario planning, would greatly aid efforts to address uncertainty and advance community sustainability.

Other Projects and Lessons Learned

WLC conducted three additional demonstration projects to further enhance scenario planning tools and apply them in different situations.

Gallatin County, Montana

Sonoran Institute staff worked with Montana State University (MSU) to engage local stakeholders in a workshop where each of four teams produced scenarios for concentrating projected growth within the currently developed “triangle” region of Bozeman, Belgrade, and Four Corners. This effort successfully integrated Envision Tomorrow scenario planning with housing unit projections from the Sonoran Institute’s Growth Model and demonstrated the value of ROI tools as a reality check on proposed land use and building types. The project also demonstrated the value of scenario planning to local experts.

Lessons learned include recognizing that (1) for many participants working with paper maps was more intuitive that the touch screen technology we had employed; (2) additional information on land characteristics, such as soil productivity and habitat values, should be used in preparing growth scenarios; and (3) more effective techniques are needed to visualize the density and design of different land use types, as well as to incorporate political and market realities that are not typically captured with scenario planning tools.

Products from this Montana project will include the creation of a library of regionally appropriate building types for use with ROI and scenario modeling and a report examining the costs and benefits, including sustainability impacts, of directing future growth to the triangle area of Gallatin Valley. With WLC support MSU has been able to incorporate the use of scenario planning tools in its graduate program.

Garfield County, Colorado

Sonoran Institute’s Western Colorado Legacy Area office, with support from the Lincoln Institute, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other local contributors, utilized the Envision Tomorrow tool in a new way to advance implementation of previously adopted plans calling for mixed-use infill and redevelopment in target growth areas. This project focused on stakeholder education regarding the mechanisms necessary to implement recently adopted comprehensive plans calling for town-centered development, rather than on scenario generation for a comprehensive plan.

Examination of policy and market feasibility for redevelopment in downtown Rifle, Colorado, was one of three separate efforts undertaken. The City of Rifle project successfully utilized an ROI tool to identify financial and regulatory factors that could impact revitalization efforts and engaged the key parties necessary for implementation, including property owners, developers, realtors, planning commissioners, local officials, state transportation representatives, and local staff.

Among the lessons learned from this project was the importance of grounding bold visions with market reality. For example, previous planning efforts in Rifle had focused on six-to-eight-story mixed-use buildings, but in the current market even three-to-four-story projects are not considered feasible (figure 4c). Most attention now is given to two-story mixed-use projects and townhomes. Visualizations for an underutilized parcel in the center of town illustrated the type of one-story option that may be most feasible for initial commercial development (figure 4b). Constraints related to parking requirements and high minimum lot coverage requirements were also identified as limits on investment. In addition to pinpointing changes in Rifle’s building code, these findings spurred discussion about the role of public-private partnerships in catalyzing downtown development.

Morongo Basin, California

This area of high open space and wildlife habitat values between Joshua Tree National Park and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Southern California may be impacted by spillover from regional growth. This project with the Morongo Basin Open Space Group involves an innovative effort to link results from the ongoing conservation priority-setting efforts with both a GIS tool to analyze and predict how land use patterns impact wildlife habitat and the scenario planning capability of Envision Tomorrow.

We are evaluating the environmental impacts of the current and potential alternative development patterns and location-specific planning and land use options. The tools being developed for this effort will be useful to land trusts throughout the country that are interested in engaging partners on local and regional planning issues and incorporating larger landscape conservation and wildlife habitat goals into their projects.

Open Source Planning Tools

Western Lands and Communities has recently been focusing on efforts to develop open source planning tools as a mechanism to increase the use of scenario planning. Key factors that hinder their use include: (1) the cost and complexity of the tools themselves; (2) the cost and availability of data; (3) a lack of standardization, making integration of tools and data difficult; and (4) proprietary tools that may be difficult to adapt to local conditions and may impede innovation.

Proponents of open source modeling tools believe open and standardized coding will facilitate increased transparency and interoperability between models, ultimately resulting in faster innovation and greater utilization. As a result of our work with Envision Tomorrow on the Superstition Vistas project, WLC and other members of an open source planning tools group are continuing to advance scenario planning tools and pursue the promise of open source tools that can foster sustainable communities in many more locations.

About the Author

Jim Holway directs Western Lands and Communities, the Lincoln Institute’s joint venture with the Sonoran Institute, based in Phoenix, Arizona. He was previously assistant director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources and a professor of practice at Arizona State University.

References

Propst, Luther. 2008. A model for sustainable development in Arizona’s Sun Corridor. Land Lines 20(3).

Superstition Vistas Consulting Team. 2011. Superstition Vistas: Final report and strategic actions. www.superstition-vistas.org

Lincoln Institute Publications

Brail, Richard K. 2008. Planning support systems for cities and regions.

Campoli, Julie, and Alex S. MacLean. 2007. Visualizing density.

Condon, Patrick M., Duncan Cavens, and Nicole Miller. 2009. Urban planning tools for climate change mitigation.

Culp, Peter W., Andy Laurenzi, and Cynthia C. Tuell. 2006. State trust lands in the West: Fiduciary duty in a changing landscape.

Hopkins, Lewis D., and Marisa A. Zapata. 2007. Engaging the future: Forecasts, scenarios, plans, and projects.

Kwartler, Michael, and Gianni Longo. 2008. Visioning and visualization: People, pixels, and plans.

Over the past several decades, the structure of the U.S. economy has changed as it experienced a continuing reduction of overall employment in manufacturing and ongoing growth in the service sector, especially services involving knowledge workers. The geographic distribution of activity has also changed as population has continued to shift from the seasonal Northeast and Midwest to the warmer South and West. Finally, within metropolitan areas, populations and employment moved from cities to the suburbs as trucking and automobile travel became ubiquitous. These three trends have left many cities in the Northeast and Midwest with much smaller populations, weaker economies, fewer manufacturing jobs, and an inability to offset lost employment opportunities with gains from sectors that are expanding nationally. These are today’s legacy cities, which often have excess infrastructure capacity, underutilized housing stocks, and fiscal stress related to past obligations from public sectors now greatly diminished in size. A recent Lincoln Institute policy focus report, Regenerating America’s Legacy Cities, by Alan Mallach and Lavea Brachman, reviews the performance of a sample of these urban areas and identifies steps the more successful cities have taken to produce stronger outcomes.

While the declines of legacy cities have common causes, their economic performance has become quite diverse in recent decades, as some have delivered much stronger economic, institutional, and fiscal results than others. All legacy cities have an array of assets including infrastructure, neighborhoods, institutions, populations, and ongoing economic activity. Differences in their comparative performance are related to how local policies and leadership have leveraged existing inventories of these assets. In particular, recovering legacy cities have built upon and expanded existing institutions in research, medicine, health, and education. They have also exploited the growing interest in urban neighborhoods where it is easy to walk to stores and restaurants, and where residential densities are higher than those in most suburban communities. Recovering cities also typically have maintained or attracted more educated residents and have seen growth in knowledge-related activities.

Legacy cities that have seen their economies begin to transform and grow again have not necessarily experienced population increases. The population of most legacy cities peaked in the mid-20th century and then declined. Buffalo and St. Louis, for example, had lower populations in 2000 than in 1900. Sometimes the decline in city populations is offset by suburban growth, so that metropolitan populations do not decline. But some successful legacy cities, such as Pittsburgh, have experienced modest population declines even at the metropolitan level. Changing the composition of city populations and economic activity is more important for success than population growth alone.

The successful recovery of legacy cities normally has not resulted from megaprojects that focus on redevelopment, but on the accretion of many small steps with a large cumulative impact—an approach Mallach and Brachman have dubbed “strategic incrementalism.” Their research shows that successful legacy cities have pursued such an approach continually and relentlessly. The key elements of strategic incrementalism require the evolution of new forms for a city’s physical organization, economic components, governance, and linkages to its surrounding region. Physically, the practice involves focusing on the city’s central core, its key neighborhoods, and the management of vacant land. Economically, it involves restoring the economic role of the city based on its comparative advantages and existing assets, sharing the benefits of growth with its population, and strengthening connections to the city’s region. Cities also must strengthen their governance and address the flow of services and fiscal resources between the city and the municipalities in the greater metropolitan area.

Legacy cities have declined over many decades, and recovery will take time and require patience. While the performance of some, such as Camden, NJ, continues to deteriorate, others show signs of progress. In Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and other legacy cities on the rebound, economic performance has improved, and the rates of unemployment, crime, and poverty have fallen below national averages despite the fact that populations remain well below their peak 60 years ago.

For additional information on the determinants of legacy city success, see http://www.lincolninst.edu/pubs/2215_Regenerating-America-s-Legacy-Cities.

Cómo definir el futuro del oeste norteamericano

Summer Waters es la tercera directora de Western Lands and Communities, un programa conjunto creado en el año 2003 por el Instituto Lincoln de Políticas de Suelo y el Sonoran Institute con el fin de promover políticas relacionadas con el uso del suelo y los recursos naturales en la región intermontañosa del oeste de los Estados Unidos. Summer tiene un título de grado en Biología de la Universidad del Sur de Florida, así como una maestría en Ingeniería civil –especializada en ingeniería ambiental y de recursos de agua– de la Universidad de Colorado en Boulder. Antes de sumarse al Sonoran Institute, Summer trabajó durante 15 años en los sectores de planificación urbana y recursos naturales para distintas entidades gubernamentales, tales como la Extensión Cooperativa de la Universidad de Arizona y el condado de San Diego, donde ganó un premio Emmy como coproductora de un video educativo.

LAND LINES: ¿Qué fue lo que la llevó a aceptar el desafío de dirigir este programa conjunto entre el Instituto Lincoln y el Sonoran Institute?

SUMMER WATERS: La oportunidad de ayudar a dar forma al futuro del oeste norteamericano. El Instituto Lincoln de Políticas de Suelo es un referente en este campo y el Sonoran Institute es reconocido en toda la región por su dedicación al trabajo en colaboración con las comunidades locales y otras organizaciones. Nuestra misión conjunta es ambiciosa, pero cada organización posee atributos complementarios que hacen que dicha misión tenga éxito. Nuestro compromiso mutuo desde hace tiempo le otorga a este programa conjunto tanto profundidad como flexibilidad.

LL: ¿Por qué este trabajo es la tarea justa en el momento justo para usted?

SW: Mi interés en el mundo natural me llevó a estudiar Biología como carrera de grado, y mi deseo de desarrollarme en una carrera orientada a las soluciones me llevó nuevamente a la universidad para estudiar Ingeniería. Después de graduarme, me interesó el tema de la planificación, ya que me permitía trabajar tanto con los entornos naturales como con los construidos. Al ir obteniendo experiencia profesional, comencé a reconocer de qué manera el uso del suelo, el agua y la energía se interconecta con la economía y el desarrollo de las comunidades. Además, valoré el abordaje holístico de Western Lands and Communities referente a los desafíos que enfrenta la región.

LL: Tanto el Instituto Lincoln como el Sonoran Institute han experimentado recientemente ciertos cambios en su liderazgo. ¿Qué desafíos y oportunidades se presentan ante usted durante esta transición?

SW: Tanto Stephanie Sklar, la nueva directora ejecutiva del Sonoran Institute, como George McCarthy, el presidente y director ejecutivo del Instituto Lincoln, son líderes motivados que me inspiran, tanto en lo personal como en lo profesional. Stephanie ha iniciado, en forma ambiciosa, un proceso de planificación estratégica que acompañará al Sonoran Institute en su 25º aniversario como organización. Con su amplio y profundo caudal de conocimientos, Stephanie sustenta el proceso y garantiza que no sólo celebremos sino también evaluemos nuestro trabajo. George McCarthy es un líder visionario y valiente, que está guiando al Instituto Lincoln en una transición similar. Su aprecio por la región del oeste del país fue notorio cuando visitó, recientemente, nuestra oficina en Phoenix. George comprende los desafíos que estamos enfrentando y la importancia que tienen los proyectos de demostración, como nuestro proyecto de restauración del delta del río Colorado, a la hora de definir el futuro de esta región.

LL: ¿De qué manera contribuye Western Lands and Communities a los esfuerzos del Sonoran Institute para restaurar la ecología y la economía del delta del río Colorado?

SW: Western Lands and Communities apoya la implementación de Minute 319, el acuerdo binacional firmado entre los Estados Unidos y México, con vigencia hasta el año 2017, a modo de guía para que ambos países sepan cómo compartir y gestionar el caudal de agua del río Colorado según el tratado de 1944. El evento más significativo derivado de este acuerdo tal vez haya sido la liberación de un “caudal por pulsos” de 130 millones de metros cúbicos de agua hacia México en la primavera de 2014. Dicha intervención se diseñó de tal manera que imitase los ciclos naturales del caudal del río Colorado en condiciones climatológicas de primavera, cuando el agua del deshielo de las montañas solía correr por donde actualmente se encuentran siete estados de los Estados Unidos y dos países, para llegar, finalmente, al mar de Cortés. Este esfuerzo histórico dio nueva vida al delta que se encontraba seco y, en mayo de 2014, el río llegó al mar por primera vez en muchos años. En la primavera de 2015, convocaremos a un grupo de representantes de ONG, profesionales académicos y científicos de distintas agencias para el primer aniversario de este evento. Los participantes analizarán el impacto que tienen los flujos de agua renovados en las funciones más importantes del ecosistema dentro de la región y evaluarán las implicaciones de este acuerdo temporal entre los Estados Unidos y México. Mediante este proceso, esperamos poder dar forma a las políticas del futuro relacionadas con la asignación de este precioso recurso al entorno natural.

LL: Entiendo que este proyecto está relacionado con sus objetivos más amplios sobre la conservación de los grandes paisajes. ¿Podría comentarnos más acerca de ello?

SW: La propiedad pública de tierras en la región intermontañosa del oeste de nuestro país es de enormes proporciones. A primera vista, un mapa de la región muestra un patrón desconectado de varias agencias y administradores de suelo con misiones y enfoques muy diferentes. Las tierras de trabajo y las tierras pertenecientes a las tribus complican aún más la situación. La conservación a nivel de paisajes se fundamenta en gran manera en la amplia gama de personas que viven en estas áreas. Para evitar la proliferación de “actos de conservación aislados”, y a fin de alcanzar resultados más coordinados y significativos, resulta esencial lograr la colaboración entre las entidades públicas, los propietarios de tierras y las tribus. Afortunadamente, los residentes de la región oeste –independientemente de sus puntos de vista políticos, su educación o su situación económica– generalmente coinciden en el objetivo común de preservar una forma de vida que está íntimamente relacionada con el paisaje en el que habitan. El camino a seguir implica capitalizar esta visión común, atraer a las comunidades para participar en la conformación de su futuro y conectar a los profesionales con las partes interesadas de manera significativa.

LL: ¿De qué manera ayuda Western Lands and Communities a las comunidades para responder mejor a los principales desafíos del futuro de la región intermontañosa del oeste?

SW: La región oeste enfrenta, básicamente, los mismos desafíos que otras regiones de los Estados Unidos, aunque sus circunstancias son singulares. Tenemos una población en crecimiento, que genera una economía y una demografía cambiantes. Tanto las áreas urbanas como las rurales intentan con mucho esfuerzo equilibrar el crecimiento y la protección de los recursos naturales. Debido a la magnitud e inmensidad del entorno natural en el oeste, resulta fácil pensar que nuestros vastos recursos naturales son infinitos, lo que es una percepción errónea que puede derivar en una expansión urbana descontrolada y otros problemas asociados con la extracción de los recursos naturales. Nuestros extensos paisajes también generan desafíos específicos relacionados con el transporte, lo que contribuye al cambio climático, una fuerza que exacerba los demás problemas. El programa conjunto ayuda a las comunidades mediante el desarrollo de herramientas de planificación, seminarios en Internet sobre crecimiento inteligente y temas relacionados con el desarrollo sostenible, y compilaciones de casos de estudio con resultados positivos en diferentes comunidades de toda la región oeste.

LL: Western Lands and Communities participa en la planificación analítica de escenarios, un enfoque único en cuanto a la planificación a largo plazo que desafía explícitamente a las comunidades a evaluar sus propuestas ante un futuro incierto. ¿En qué difiere la planificación analítica de escenarios de la planificación tradicional y cómo se aplica en la región oeste?

SW: La planificación analítica de escenarios es un proceso que fomenta la imaginación en el proceso de planificación. Mediante la participación de las partes interesadas, los miembros de la comunidad y los expertos, desarrollamos una serie de escenarios posibles y reconocemos las fuerzas complejas, tal como el cambio climático, que podrían dar como resultado un futuro muy diferente. Ayudamos a los participantes a ver sus problemas particulares desde el punto de vista de las fuerzas sociales, políticas, económicas y naturales más amplias que suelen dar forma a las comunidades. Aunque algunos escenarios actualmente parecen más probables o deseables que otros, cada uno de ellos recibe el mismo nivel de consideración durante todo el taller. Y lo que es más importante, este proceso es más flexible, participativo y dinámico que la planificación tradicional, ya que requiere de los participantes que desarrollen diversas estrategias en respuesta a una gama de incertidumbres en el futuro. Western Lands and Communities ha ayudado a diferentes comunidades en toda la región oeste a aplicar este enfoque en las actualizaciones del Plan General, en el desarrollo del plan de cuencas hidrográficas y en la preparación ante el impacto económico de las condiciones climáticas y meteorológicas cambiantes. Finalmente, la planificación analítica de escenarios está diseñada para ayudar a las comunidades a adaptarse mejor a los cambios, mediante el abordaje de problemas complejos que se encuentran inmersos en grandes incertidumbres. Las previsiones y estrategias generadas mediante este proceso preparan a los líderes para guiar a sus comunidades hacia un futuro más sostenible.

LL: ¿Cuáles son los desafíos especiales de planificar para el cambio climático en la región intermontañosa del oeste? ¿De qué manera los enfoques de Western Lands and Communities han reconocido estos problemas?

SW: En la región del oeste de los Estados Unidos, el cambio climático afecta los ecosistemas que son predominantemente áridos y, por lo general, muestran múltiples problemas con un gran nivel de variabilidad. En el pasado, construimos grandes embalses con el fin de abordar el problema de la provisión fluctuante de agua causada por los ciclos de sequía. No obstante, dicha solución ya no es suficiente, pues estamos experimentando sequías de una gravedad sin precedentes, seguidas de inundaciones extremas. Ahora las comunidades deben enfrentar problemas que, anteriormente, podían dejar en manos del gobierno federal. Las comunidades deben determinar por sí mismas cómo enfrentar la reducción de los recursos de agua, el aumento de las temperaturas, la migración de ecosistemas y el clima extremo. El enfoque de Western Lands and Communities es ayudar a las comunidades a identificar las prioridades y desarrollar políticas a fin de generar resiliencia.

Debemos ser muy conscientes del hecho de que las comunidades vecinas pueden estar muy polarizadas en lo referente al cambio climático. Aunque algunas comunidades han reconocido esta realidad, otras se aferran a un modo de vida pasado que resulta esencial al carácter de la región lo que deja muy poco espacio para la adaptación. La región del oeste posee grandes poblaciones de indígenas americanos y latinos, que son particularmente vulnerables al impacto del cambio climático. Hace poco hemos comenzado a trabajar con comunidades urbanas de latinos en Arizona a fin de abordar el problema de su exposición desproporcionada a los efectos del calentamiento global. Nuestra tarea consiste en convocar a los líderes, elaborar mensajes que sean significativos para las comunidades de latinos y trabajar con las organizaciones con el fin de capacitar a los miembros de la comunidad para que, a su vez, formen a otros sobre este tema. Todas las comunidades son diferentes, por lo que combinamos los métodos replicables con una gestión adaptativa.

LL: El abordaje del trabajo de Western Lands and Communities se ha ampliado considerablemente desde que comenzó con un enfoque exclusivo sobre las necesidades, los desafíos y las oportunidades relacionadas con las tierras de fideicomisos estatales. ¿Cuál es la importancia de esa misión original y la consecuente relación, desarrollada a lo largo del tiempo, con los administradores de las tierras de fideicomisos estatales?

SW: Históricamente, tanto el público en general como los profesionales dedicados a los recursos naturales no han comprendido bien el concepto de tierras de fideicomisos estatales, en particular en lo que respecta a sus responsabilidades fiduciarias. Las personas dependen de las tierras de fideicomisos estatales para su sustento, al igual que los niños y adultos jóvenes que necesitan un acceso a la educación pública de calidad. Aquí en Arizona, en los últimos años, hemos observado cortes sin precedentes en los fondos destinados a las escuelas y universidades públicas. Nuestro trabajo ha posibilitado una mayor comprensión del concepto de tierras de fideicomisos estatales como fuentes de financiamiento para las escuelas públicas y como sistemas naturales que tienen importantes funciones biológicas que deben protegerse. Los bancos de mitigación y la permuta de tierras ayudan a integrar las tierras de fideicomisos estatales al contexto más amplio de la conservación de grandes paisajes y desarrollo sostenible. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los administradores de tierras de fideicomisos estatales enfrentan desafíos regulatorios cuando intentan implementar las prácticas de conservación. Resulta necesario lograr una reforma para eliminar los obstáculos que dificultan la implementación de todas las prácticas que apuntan tanto a la conservación como a la rentabilidad.

Los beneficios económicos y ambientales de las tierras de fideicomisos estatales seguirán siendo significativos. Finalmente, nuestro compromiso hacia las comunidades de la región oeste a través de nuestro trabajo con las tierras de fideicomisos estatales permanecerá intacto. Aunque el enfoque del programa vaya cambiando a medida que los estados enfrentan desafíos nuevos y diferentes, la necesidad de educar a las personas en la premisa de que las tierras de fideicomisos estatales de generar valor para los beneficiarios de los fideicomisos permanecerá constante en los próximos años.

Researchers from the Lincoln Institute are working with the Group for the Integrated Development of the Capital (GDIC) in Havana to better understand how land and increments in land value can be utilized to facilitate the physical rehabilitation and economic development of Cuba.

During the Soviet era, Cuba’s economic environment was characterized by a top-down model in which state agencies were the principal economic and development actors. Planning was autocratic and inflexible; trade depended primarily on the socialist bloc countries; financial capacity was centralized in the national budget; and there was no tax system. Legal, financial and economic reforms implemented since 1990 have helped to create an institutional environment more conducive to economic efficiency and to allow Cuba’s participation in the global market (see Figure 1).

However, the Cuban economy still faces tremendous difficulties that have seriously affected the country’s capacity to maintain living standards, the quality of social and public services, and economic development programs in general. For example, Cuba’s GDP in 1995 was only one-half its 1989 level and its import capacity has fallen from roughly 8 billion to 2 billion US$ annually.

Figure 1: Summary of Key Reforms

1990 Opening of the economy to foreign investors

1991 Reinstatement of Cuban international trade

1992 Introduction of modifications to the 1976 Constitution

Introduction of new forms of non-state property Elimination of the state monopoly on international trade Expansion of foreign-owned private market enterprises 1993 Transfer of formerly state-owned rural land to workers

1994 Restructuring of the central state administration Opening of agricultural markets based on supply and demand mechanisms

1995 Reestablishment of indicative planning and introduction of financial indicators Beginning of state business restructuring Regularization of the circulation of hard currency in the banking system Enactment of new laws on foreign investments Gradual introduction of components of a tax system Enactment of the law restructuring the banking system

1997 Enactment of the law on free trade zones

The Cuban government has tried to promote tourism as its primary means to generate much-needed hard currency quickly. As a Caribbean island, Cuba offers substantial tourist attractions, ranging from magnificent beaches to the architectural heritage of Old Havana, which has been recognized on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, as well as other natural, historical and cultural sites around the country. However, stimulation of the tourist industry requires international partners to undertake the development of hotels, shops, restaurants and airport expansion. The fact that the state owns most of the land available for development is a critical element in Cuba’s strategy to attract foreign developers and tourists.

The government’s plan to build its tourist industry has shown some success. In 1967 there were about 2,000 tourists to the island annually, whereas in 1998 over 1.4 million visitors traveled to Cuba. During the last five years alone, foreign investors have increased their operations in Cuba in several economic sectors, particularly in tourism. As a result 2,000 new hotel rooms have been added in Havana, with a total capacity now surpassing 10,700 rooms. Nationwide there are 31,600 hotel rooms, and the target is to increase capacity to 40,000 over the next two years. About 80 percent of recent construction activity in Cuba is related, directly or indirectly, to the tourist sector. Some estimates indicate that state-owned land and buildings already committed to these new projects represent around 500 million US$. Significantly, this development has been achieved without the existence of a formal land market.

Land-based Policies to Stimulate Development

Land has been used in various ways to help stimulate development and to generate public revenues. First, the Cuban government has used land as its capital contribution in joint ventures with international developers. For example, VanCuba Holdings, S.A., a Canadian company, is a 50-percent partner with the Cuban government in a project to build 11 hotels. Cuba contributed the land as its 50-percent share and the Canadian company is expected to invest 400 million US$. Many such joint venture arrangements, particularly real estate and tourism projects, have been made with development companies from Canada, Spain, Italy and Israel.

Since land is Cuba’s principal contribution to these international ventures, a key issue is to assure that the financial value of the land represents 50 percent of the project’s social capital. In cases where the monetary value of the contributed land is less than 50 percent, the foreign partner has often been instrumental in helping its Cuban counterpart apply for credit from international banks or financial institutions to make up the difference. More recently, the credit to assure 50-percent Cuban participation is obtained at low interest rates directly from the Central Bank of Cuba rather than from international entities.

A second mechanism to stimulate development is the increased use of land leasing agreements for commercial and office projects. Leasing is preferred since the direct sale of state-owned land is possible only in very special situations. The leasing terms are negotiated on the basis of the specific land value, and if accepted by all parties are established for 25 years. The lease may be reviewed and extended for an additional 25 years if the parties involved in the renegotiations agree upon the new criteria. In Havana, several projects with foreign investors are currently operating under such an agreement, and the estimated area under development in the city surpasses 100 hectares.

Third, the Cuban government has entered into direct rental agreements for state-owned land in free trade zones, which in some cases generate significant revenues. About 120 foreign private and public-private enterprises have been established already in two trade zones in Havana.

Both the leasing and direct rental agreements for state-owned land provide important new funds to the national budget. These resources are then used to improve the standard of living in local communities by providing social services (education and health), developing economic projects, upgrading and enlarging major infrastructure and other amenities, and generating jobs. Some examples of city and community benefits that have been supported largely by these revenues are the new Havana International Airport, the creation and improvement of a digital telephone system, and the metropolitan park projects in the Almendares River area.

A different but very interesting set of instruments to mobilize land value increments resulting from public investment has been developed by the Office of the Historian, the public agency responsible for promoting, financing and developing the revitalization program in Old Havana. This Office has begun to collect both indirect and direct taxes totaling 35 percent of revenues from private enterprises not related to the Office, such as hotels, commercial businesses and restaurants that have benefited from the Office’s efforts to rehabilitate the historic district. These external revenues, as well as revenues generated by projects initiated by the Office itself, are used in a kind of revolving fund to support further investments in the built environment. They also fund a variety of social programs, including housing, nursing homes, and educational and cultural activities in Old Havana. The Office’s total revenues surpassed 40 million US$ in 1998 and 50 million US$ in 1999. The government is also negotiating other kinds of revenue-generating programs to capture land value increments to support the rehabilitation of the Paseo del Prado and the Rampa areas of Havana, as well as the Boca de la Chorrera redevelopment project at the mouth of the Almendares River.

Difficulties with Implementation

Cuba’s implementation of these various tools for capturing land value increments has not occurred without problems. In the case of the indirect and direct taxes on revenues introduced in Old Havana, several businesses have claimed that their revenue sources are not a result of the efforts by the Office of the Historian to improve the district, and therefore should be exempt from the tax. For example, the headquarters of the Cuban Fuel Distribution Company (CUPET) is located in a valuable area in the heart of the historic center but does not pay the tax. The company argues that its revenue sources (i.e., its facilities and distribution networks) are located outside the center and therefore do not benefit from the rehabilitation process.

The 25-year leasing agreements illustrate a different problem arising from the implicit dilemma between short-run vs. long-run goals, because the agreements do not include a periodic updating of lease payments. On one hand, if the payments are set on the basis of existing use and value, the public authorities may lose significant financial resources that could accrue from the impacts of these investments and other changes in land value over the 25-year lease. However, if the authorities attempt to capture the anticipated higher value immediately, they will have more difficulty making such expensive deals with wary investors.

The lack of an adequate legal system for real estate development and mortgage lending in Cuba is a major obstacle to implementation of all these instruments. Proposed new real estate laws have been drafted but legislation expected to be introduced last year has not yet been adopted. This uncertain and unpredictable legal situation can prevent the formation of serious business partnerships, which normally require long-term vision, stability and transparency. Furthermore, this lack of legal protection may scare away the highest quality developers who would be most able to carry out sophisticated larger projects. As a result, the Cuban government has had fewer strong proposals to evaluate and has been accepting smaller projects with less established international developers.

These smaller projects are sometimes problematic for several reasons. First, they are often located in the most desirable parts of Havana, although such developments are not necessarily appropriate for those neighborhoods. Second, they must rely on existing infrastructure since they are not large enough to provide that additional investment. Third, the aesthetic quality and even the basic service standards of these new hotels or apartments are sometimes questionable. Since these buildings affect the overall image of the city, they may even have a negative impact and contribute to the devaluation of their neighborhood.

A related problem is the uncertainty that developers experience in having to deal with new institutions and policy tools that are being negotiated within the Cuban government at the same time they are being implemented in the field. While these policies are under review, the government has introduced a moratorium on new development in certain areas of Havana and has slowed the real estate negotiation process in general. Without stability and trust in the relevant government agencies and policies, private investors for commercial or residential projects are discouraged by the risks inherent in making long-term development decisions. This has an obvious effect on the costs of development and the expected internal rates of return.

Finally, there are the difficulties of assessing land values in the absence of formal markets, let alone transparent land transactions. Government agencies involved in development have two choices. One is to use administrative prices in determining the value of leases or contributions, even though the basis for these prices may not reflect the actual value of land attributes. Alternatively, the agencies must negotiate the price with foreign developers based on the dynamics of the particular site. Both options are limited by the lack of ongoing independent land market transactions on which to evaluate actual prices.

Land Policy Dilemmas

Although Cuba has made substantial progress, it faces many challenges and dilemmas in using land efficiently to stimulate development and generate revenues. For example, the smaller, more expedient projects may result in faster development and revenue flows, but they are not able to create a broader vision for future land uses, and they frequently cause damage to the historic fabric and natural environment. The larger, better-financed projects can create such a vision and enhance the environment, but are much more difficult to negotiate and take longer to build.

Furthermore, the larger projects may require a substantial investment in basic infrastructure because of the poor quality of existing conditions. The government has not had the resources to make these investments, thus threatening the economic sustainability of new urban interventions. Small projects cannot support such investment burdens. While the large projects may be able to finance infrastructure investment, they run the risk of becoming exclusive enclaves separated from the surrounding community when they provide infrastructure only as part of their own project. The question, then, is how to finance the infrastructure in a non-exclusionary manner to encourage other small-scale development. Three alternatives are being pursued simultaneously, but are subject to continuing debate:

• small, individualized interventions using leases to occupy infill areas in the city that are already well-endowed with infrastructure;
• enclaves of large resorts and gated communities that can support infrastructure through exactions and development fees, with other controls built into the negotiation to prevent exclusionary access; or
• broader value capture policies to use real estate as an asset to generate revenues in a way that preserves the historical heritage and community solidarity, and prevents social segregation, sprawl and other negative implications.

Another aspect of the debate among Cuban planning and development experts concerns the pros and cons of introducing open land markets with a strong tax system vs. maintaining the existing public management of state-owned land. Those who advocate for introducing open land markets feel it is a necessary step to encourage development so that Cuba can benefit from linkages with the global economy and different types of foreign investments. These experts also argue that Cuba must continue to develop mechanisms for capturing publicly created land value.

Those who argue for continuing the current system point to Cuba’s success in reducing spatial segregation, promoting balance in social and urban services, preserving historic and other patrimony values in the city, and reserving enough land for future development projects. These advocates point to the recent Latin American experience with free markets, which has resulted in increased segregation between rich and poor areas, a lack of social services in poorer areas, increases in urban violence, speculation, and growing environmental problems.

In summary, some of the priority issues on Cuba’s land development agenda are the establishment of a legal system with clear parameters and the introduction of more rigorous and transparent mechanisms for valuing land and buildings. In addition, diversification of the types of Cuba-based partners available to participate in international development projects will help establish criteria for a longer-term planning perspective that will encourage large-scale infrastructure projects and support the continuing provision of benefits to the community. These concerns are not so different from land policy challenges in other developing countries. The continued study of land value as an instrument for development in Cuba offers important lessons for researchers and public officials throughout Latin America.

Ricardo Núñez is researcher at the Group for the Integrated Development of the Capital (GDIC) in Havana, Cuba. H. James Brown is president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute, and Martim Smolka is senior fellow and director of the Institute’s Latin American and Caribbean Program. Laura Mullahy, research assistant for the Latin American and Caribbean Program, also contributed to this article.

Una versión más actualizada de este artículo está disponible como parte del capítulo 5 del libro Perspectivas urbanas: Temas críticos en políticas de suelo de América Latina.

Los cambios en la economía global, las telecomunicaciones y los sistemas de transporte obligan a las ciudades de todo el mundo a pensar en proyectos de desarrollo urbano a gran escala como una manera de reestructurar el uso de la tierra y de estimular la economía local. Por ejemplo, extensas áreas con buena ubicación que anteriormente han estado ocupadas por instalaciones ferroviarias y otros usos industriales o relacionados con el transporte han quedado abandonadas en muchas ciudades de medianas dimensiones a medida que el transporte de bienes se hace cada vez más en contenedores desde un número reducido de puertos principales y terminales.

Las restricciones reglamentarias sobre las empresas del estado han limitado las opciones para abrir estas tierras subutilizadas al mercado privado o para desarrollarlas como proyectos públicos. Con una mayor privatización y la eliminación de restricciones, estas propiedades se convertirían en la ubicación ideal para exitosas asociaciones públicas y privadas de desarrollo urbano. Sin embargo, aunque los desarrollos urbanos monumentales tal vez parezcan una panacea, también plantean numerosas inquietudes sobre la implementación y los efectos imprevistos en otros barrios de la ciudad, así como la competencia con otras ciudades.

Córdoba es un ejemplo representativo de las ciudades que han adoptado la planificación estratégica a fin de reestructurar los usos de las tierras locales en un contexto macroeconómico e institucional cambiante. Una de las preguntas clave que se hacen estas ciudades es hasta qué punto puede un nuevo desarrollo de gran magnitud, en este caso un telepuerto, estimular efectivamente la diversidad económica y reactivar una zona marginada.

Condiciones en Córdoba

La ciudad de Córdoba, con una población aproximada de 1,3 millones de habitantes, está estratégicamente ubicada en el centro geográfico de Argentina y tiene vínculos bien establecidos con la capital Buenos Aires y ciudades importantes de Chile, Brasil y Uruguay. Por mucho tiempo Córdoba ha sido un centro industrial donde se concentraba la producción de automóviles, aviones, trenes y maquinaria, al igual que de bienes de consumo como alimentos, calzado, ropa y artículos de cuero. Más recientemente, la ciudad ha extendido su sector de servicios para cubrir necesidades locales y regionales.

Puesto que Argentina ha pasado por una estabilización y reestructuración de su economía, Córdoba ha adquirido un mayor potencial para convertirse en un núcleo floreciente del Mercosur, el distrito de negocios de la región centro-sur de Suramérica. No obstante, uno de los obstáculos más perturbadores para la ciudad sigue siendo la competencia con Buenos Aires.

Al igual que muchas otras ciudades de América Latina, Córdoba está atravesando por un período de mayor descentralización, de transición hacia una estructura urbana multipolar y de otros problemas socioeconómicos. Hace varios años la ciudad emprendió un proceso de planificación estratégica que incorporaba un grupo muy representativo de circunscripciones y que desembocó en un plan en 1996 en el cual se identificaban algunas necesidades inmediatas de desarrollo económico y otros aspectos que exigían mayor análisis e implementación.

Como parte de la colaboración continua entre los funcionarios municipales y el Instituto Lincoln, en un seminario realizado en Córdoba en abril de 1997 se examinó la regulación y promoción del mercado inmobiliario. (1) Una idea de gran prioridad que surgió de aquellas discusiones se refería al desarrollo de un telepuerto en terrenos urbanos subutilizados en el centro de la ciudad. Se creó un comité para abordar la planificación y la implementación de dicha obra, el cual estaba integrado por funcionarios municipales, representantes del sector empresarial privado y miembros de la comunidad universitaria local.

El telepuerto concebido para Córdoba es una obra para usos combinados que ofrecerá edificios de oficinas, centros de convenciones y hoteles, además de otros usos secundarios de la tierra. La oferta de edificios de oficinas con tecnología de punta es considerada un objetivo clave para satisfacer las necesidades que tiene la ciudad como centro regional y sede nacional para algunas empresas. Estas instalaciones tendrán una sofisticada infraestructura de telecomunicaciones y se construirán con una inversión combinada de los sectores público y privado. Uno de los primeros proyectos es un hotel que la municipalidad construirá dentro de una edificación histórica.

La ubicación propuesta para el telepuerto es un terreno de 40 hectáreas en el centro de la ciudad, en las márgenes del río Suquía. El terreno incluye antiguas líneas ferroviarias y tiene buen acceso a las principales carreteras que comunican la región de Mercosur. Actualmente los predios están en manos de propietarios públicos y privados y se prevé que serán necesarios algunos traspasos de tierras para poder emprender el proyecto.

Observaciones y recomendaciones

Para ayudar al comité a terminar sus planes del telepuerto, la ciudad de Córdoba y el Instituto Lincoln organizaron un segundo seminario en abril de 1998 para discutir las inquietudes acerca de la implementación del proyecto. Los estudios comparativos de casos de proyectos de desarrollo a gran escala de entidades públicas y privadas en Toronto, Canadá y en Sao Paulo, Brasil sirvieron como valiosas referencias de los problemas y desafíos enfrentados por esas ciudades y aportaron una base para analizar el diseño y las posibles perspectivas para la propuesta del telepuerto.

Una consideración fundamental es la dimensión a gran escala del telepuerto en relación con el mercado local existente, lo que supone que, como mínimo, el proyecto debe realizarse por etapas para garantizar que el desarrollo urbano sea ordenado. Igualmente tienen que ver con la dimensión los efectos que tendrá el proyecto sobre otros terrenos de la ciudad, entre los que se encuentran predios con un potencial para obras de desarrollo de carácter similar. El atractivo relativo de los terrenos escogidos puede traer consecuencias negativas para el desarrollo de tierras no residenciales en otras zonas específicas de crecimiento de la ciudad. Paralelamente es importante entender la intensidad y fuerza del mercado para los usos específicos que tendría el terreno propuesto para el telepuerto.

Otra preocupación es el posible efecto negativo del proyecto sobre los barrios residenciales existentes y en crecimiento de la zona. Por otra parte, el éxito del telepuerto podría beneficiar a los barrios si los residentes se integran al proceso de planificación e implementación.

Entre las lecciones que faltan por aprender de la experiencia que han tenido otras ciudades está la importancia de fijar objetivos manejables; algunos participantes del seminario expresaron su temor de que el comité de Córdoba estuviese siendo demasiado ambicioso. Una segunda lección se refiere a la necesidad de actuar con sumo cuidado al seleccionar la ubicación de una nueva obra de desarrollo de gran magnitud. Si bien la ubicación propuesta para el telepuerto no se consideraba desfavorable en ningún sentido, su selección no había sido el resultado de un análisis sistemático. Más bien se trata de un caso en que la ciudad busca aprovechar una oportunidad para llevar a cabo un plan de desarrollo en un terreno disponible que urge reutilizar.

Una tercera observación la hizo el sector privado, que tiene necesidades especiales en cuanto al acceso, infraestructura y costos. Mediante un estudio de mercado idóneo se podrá identificar un sinnúmero de aspectos por considerar, incluida la capacidad que tendría Córdoba para competir con Buenos Aires como sede local o regional de empresas nacionales e internacionales. Está claro que los supuestos beneficiarios del sector privado deben participar directamente en el desarrollo conceptual y la planificación del proyecto.

Varias semanas después del seminario, la ciudad encargó un estudio para facilitar la estrategia de implementación del telepuerto con base en estas inquietudes y recomendaciones. El estudio también investigará posibles instrumentos para efectuar la captura de plusvalías que permitan obtener el financiamiento necesario para la infraestructura y los mecanismos para formular los tipos de asociaciones entre los sectores público y privado que parecen indispensables para el éxito del proyecto del telepuerto.

Como observación general de cierre hay que agregar que los funcionarios de Córdoba, o cualquier otra ciudad que esté considerando obras de desarrollo urbano a gran escala, precisan actuar con celeridad más allá de la fase de estudio y brindar capacitación y otros mecanismos de apoyo para que los dirigentes locales y los profesionales puedan mejorar su capacidad para manejar el proyecto. Se requieren destrezas y experiencia para evaluar el funcionamiento de los mercados inmobiliarios, definir la competencia técnica requerida, negociar con el sector privado y vigilar la gestión financiera, la regulación de los servicios públicos, el impuesto a la propiedad, las regulaciones de la tierra y la compleja interacción de todos estos elementos. El desafío de una tarea así es lograr el equilibrio entre una cuota suficiente de planificación e investigación y la necesidad de aprovechar las oportunidades de desarrollo a medida que surgen y de aprender con la evolución del proceso.

David Amborski es profesor de la Escuela de Planificación Urbana y Regional en la Universidad Politécnica de Ryerson en Toronto. Douglas Keare, miembro principal del Instituto Lincoln, cuenta con experiencia en planificación estratégica en grandes ciudades de países en vías de desarrollo.