Risk management in public land development projects: Comparative case study in Finland, and the Netherlands

How do planners manage risk in alternative land development models? An institutional analysis of land development in the Netherlands

“…This research strategy allows us to examine each model as it is practiced within the same legal and national policy context for planning. The selection of the Netherlands is due to its accommodation of each of these land development models within a single such context, as well as its being a planning context in which an awareness of public sector risk in planning has been raised over the past decade, following the effects of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 (Valtonen et al, 2017). The analysis has implications for planning elsewhere, however, to the extent that its primary purpose is to address alternative land development models that are, or have the potential to be, applied in different planning contexts.…”

“…Public land development involves the acquisition of land and its servicing with infrastructure by the public sector before being divided into plots and sold to private sector developers. The degree of risk assumed by the public sector in public land development is substantial, and that taken on by private sector developers is relatively minimal (Needham and Verhage, 1998;van der Krabben and Jacobs, 2013;Valtonen et al, 2017). Public land development was, for half a century, the dominant model of land development in the Netherlands, with municipalities generally adopting an 'active', development-led land policy.…”

“…Yet, with a few exceptions (Hartmann and Spit, 2015;Savini, 2017), land development models have not generally been discussed in terms of the relative levels of public risk that they entail. Valtonen et al (2017), in attempting such a task, examine how planning agencies engaging in public land development manage risk. As Valtonen et al (2017, p.247) note, 'market risk control and its trade-offs with public interests are novel perspectives to approach this [public] land development strategy'.…”

Legitimacy Dilemmas in Direct Government Intervention: The Case of Public Land Development, an Example from the Netherlands

“…Thirdly, local authorities could make sure that enough land was available for (re)development. Public land development, however, is not without financial risks [20]. That is the main reason why the strategy is continuously under heavy debate [22,23].…”

“…It considers the case of the planning implementation instrument of public land development. The strategy of public land development has long been one of the most defining, direct and effective elements of the Dutch and also some Nordic countries' planning systems [20]. However, its application bears the potential risk that planning considerations and economic incentives will effectively militate against each other [15,21].…”