ABSTRACT
Given the question marks with respect to the validity of liberal models for open space preservation that emerge from Chapters 5 and 6, we wondered whether, in American metropolitan landscapes, successful examples can be found of marketbased mechanisms that secure open space. The liberal governance culture in the US (despite the jurisdictional fragmentation that gives citizens the power of exit and thus enables competition between cities; Tiebout, 1956) limits the protection of open space by municipalities, for two reasons in particular. First, zoning may not reduce value of private property without compensation, otherwise it is a ‘taking’ (see Platt, 2004, p. 295 for jurisprudential history) prohibited by the Constitution. As a consequence, designating open space through zoning is rarely done for financial reasons. Second, the urban fringes often are ‘unincorporated’, meaning that they don’t have a municipal status and planning is done by the county; municipalities are typically totally urbanised and don’t have much open space to make policy for.
