Watershed development restrictions and land prices: Empirical evidence from southern Appalachia

The State of North Carolina's Water Supply Watershed Protection Act of 1989 required local governments to adopt land use measures in watersheds to protect the water supply emanating from the watersheds. We examine vacant land prices in the Ivy River watershed of Buncombe County, NC, at the time such regulation took effect. Our results suggest that costs of watershed development restrictions are borne primarily by those vacant land owners in the watershed for whom the development restrictions make land subdivision infeasible. We find benefits accruing to land owners on the public water supply or who are adjacent to creeks.