ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the process of land development by municipalities. The key to understanding the price setting is to be found in the financial statement that accompanies all land-use plans. If the municipality were to restrict itself to making the plan and issuing permits, its own costs would be low and could be recouped by levying charges on developers. After the municipality has acquired the land, it services it in accordance with the plan. A municipality plays a double role on the urban land market: it is obliged, as the public authority for physical planning, to steer and regulate changes in the use of urban land. The suppliers of unserviced land are the existing owners: those whose land or land and buildings are acquired by a municipality at the start of a land development process. It has been said that public affairs in the Netherlands follow a “negotiating culture” or “the politics of accommodation”.
