How To Privatize the Inner City

24 December 2005 - 5:00am

Could allowing homeowners in a community to pool their property for sale to a private developer be a suitable alternative to eminent domain powers?

"[O]lder cities face serious land-use problems. How can a dense urban area like New London or Hartford revitalize itself if developers have to build one lot at a time? Should residents of failing cities insist that shopping centers be built only in the far suburbs, displacing farms and increasing suburban sprawl? Must all large housing developments be relegated to the exurbs?

There is a better way to give developers access to sizable plots of land in the city: allow homeowners to privatize their neighborhoods and sell en masse directly to developers."

Source: Forbes, December 12, 2005
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