ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief overview of the different legal-economic devices through which an area or a piece of land can be developed: subdivision, comprehensive development schemes (zac), land-pooling associations and the direct building permit. Public actors aim to regulate the legal land framework as well as economic conditions, especially for large projects and urbanization schemes. In a gloomy economic environment, lobby groups usually ask the government to lower the relevant taxes. Land surveyors are grouped into the Ordre des Geometres Experts, a nationwide chartered organization. Intermediaries include those who belong to associations or professional bodies and those who act individually, such as the occasional real-estate broker. Pre-emption tools, zacs and other useful urban devices allow public actors to adapt to new economic and industrial parameters. A zac can be located only inside areas zoned "urban" or "development" in a local plan.
