The effect of local land use regulations on urban development in the Western United States

This paper estimates the effect of local land use regulations on land development in five western states of the United States (California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington). Results suggest that local land use regulations reduced the total supply of developed land by 10% in the five western states between 1982 and 1997, with the largest percent reduction in Washington (13.0%), followed by Oregon (12.6%), California (9.5%), Idaho (4.7%), and Nevada (2.8%). Land development was more likely to occur in areas with high uncertainty about net returns to farmland and low uncertainty about net returns to developed land.