ABSTRACT
Most American landowners, land developers, and planning professionals would be shocked to read about the Swiss land policy tool of building obligation. Zoning and related land policy tools provide a frame for land use, but they do not force a landowner to take advantage of the maximum limits available. The core issue embedded in the land policy tool of building obligation is how the right to build is shared between the private owner and the public. The idea embedded in the Swiss policy of building obligation is one that acknowledges both the present structure of property and the ability to use that structure to change it in the realization of new ends. Essentially nothing like the concept of building obligation exists in the US What there is instead is a basically bi-modal basis for land use. Where land is privately owned, the landowner holds the land use decision.
