Research on Methods to Estimate Land Value Increments from Public Actions

The submission deadline has been extended from January 22, 2024 to January 29, 2024. 

The Lincoln Institute seeks research proposals on approaches the public sector uses to quantify the value it adds to private land through its actions—a critical step toward recovering at least part of that added value to reinvest in projects or services that benefit communities. Estimating the land value increments government actions trigger is still an area of land-based financing that merits greater understanding. For instance, adequately implementing public financing tools like special assessments or betterment contributions requires technical studies to assess the value increases that investments in infrastructure produce in adjacent or nearby private land; measuring those value increases allows contributions to be properly allocated among property owners who benefit from such public investments. Similarly, when an urban district is rezoned to allow for more productive land uses or denser development, localities may estimate charges or fees for the right to build according to the newly established land use or density allowance.

We are interested in methods, techniques, and practical approaches across geographies, and in a diversity of institutional settings, to value land appreciation due to public actions—including investments in roads, railways, bridges, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, transit systems, blue-green infrastructure, telecommunications, and so forth, as well as to value added by changes in land use regulations or upzoning.