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To promote export-oriented industries, the Government of India and the state governments encourage SEZs through financial incentives and regulatory relaxations, including lax land acquisition policies. The author further argues that the market-based pricing mechanisms used to acquire land in these transportation corridor regions undermine the I raison d'être i of these corridors because these mechanisms lead to sharp land value increases that are detrimental to economic development. In this chapter, the author studies the land acquisition process of the Khed Special Economic Zone (SEZ). [Extracted from the article]

Globally, governments at all levels—national to local—are fiscally constrained, especially in the developing countries of the Global South (Africa, Latin and Central America, and the developing countries of Asia). One such country is India, which is also experiencing rapid growth in urban populations and is seeking additional revenues from public finance sources, such as development charges. In India, these charges need to meet the rational nexus principle to be legally robust. Through a review of India's state-level enabling legislation, this article seeks to identify ways in which the enabling legal framework for development charges can promote or hamper the rational nexus principle. Finally, this article provides insights that can help jurisdictions in India, and potentially in other Global South countries, craft or amend enabling legislation so that such legislation can withstand rational nexus principle–related legal challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars and practitioners in the United States have paid significant attention to the need for consistency in urban planning documents. However, consistency between general plans (GPs) and capital improvement plans (CIPs) has received little attention. Aiming to fill this research gap, this article first reviews the academic and professional literature to identify the strategies that local governments use to ensure strong consistency between GPs and CIPs. Then, it reviews the GPs and CIPs of four cities and presents a framework for evaluating whether, how, and how well local governments are implementing strategies that enhance GP–CIP consistency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a review of three public transport projects developed across the United States using tax increment financing (TIF) revenues, this article examines the robustness of state- and local-level enabling statutes and the strategies used to minimize TIF’s horizontal and vertical inequities. The article finds that although TIF is widely used to fund transit-related facilities, such as rail lines and train stations, it is not used to purchase or maintain the rolling stock (e.g., train cars and buses). Furthermore, the use of TIF revenues for public transport enhances vertical equity to the extent that public transit users are likely to have lower incomes than auto users. However, in all case study projects, TIF primarily helped develop rail projects, not bus systems, with the latter more likely to be used by lower income people. Finally, setting aside TIF funds for affordable housing, job training, and relocation and rehabilitation can help reduce vertical inequities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Fremont Unified School District in Fremont, California, as the study area, this study estimates the impact of school quality on house prices and finds that a one-standard-deviation increase in the quality of elementary, middle, and high schools significantly increases house prices—by 20 percent for an average-priced house. I urge urban planners and policy makers to explicitly recognize the impact of schools on residential segregation, to consider access to high-quality K–12 education when developing plans and policies, to collaborate with school districts to improve educational quality, and to provide incentives for the construction of affordable housing in neighborhoods with high-quality schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews three impact fee programs spread across three continents (North America, Australia, and Asia) in a search for those impact fee design features that meet the nexus and rough proportionality principles and promote vertical equity. To meet the nexus and rough proportionality principles, we assert that the impact fee should vary by use, intensity of use, and type of infrastructure or service funded by the fee, and that the fee should be based on clearly articulated service standards. Finally, specific policies that may be used to increase vertical equity include (a) allowing developers to pay the fee in installments and/or at a later stage of project development, (b) granting impact fee waivers for affordable housing, and (c) exempting smaller properties from paying the fee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little scholarly attention has been paid to the equity impacts of special assessment districts (SADs) established to fund public transportation projects. This article uses three recent public transportation projects funded using SADs in the United States and finds that the case study SADs’ performance is mixed. Although the districts use a variety of criteria, such as property value, parcel area, and distance from the transportation project, to calculate assessments in a way that promotes horizontal equity, the assessment methodologies do not take into account the disamenity associated with certain elements of public transportation projects, such as the rail line. Furthermore, owner-occupied residential properties are often exempt from paying assessments to garner support for SADs, rather than to satisfy equity concerns. Finally, the low-interest, long-term payment of assessments enhances vertical equity which can be further enhanced if assessment exemptions or deferments are consistently provided to seniors on fixed incomes and low-income households. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study empirically estimates the effects of four types of impact fees (road, school, park, and fire protection impact fees) on new and existing housing, as well as the fees’ differential effects on price as determined by housing quality. The results indicate that impact fees generally raise the price of new housing. Further, the magnitude and the direction of the housing price effect of individual impact fees vary substantially. For example, the park impact fee increases the price of new and existing housing, whereas the fire protection impact fee has no effect or has a negative effect on housing prices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Physical exercise up-regulates telomere-stabilizing proteins in mice, suggesting that physical activity affects telomere length. Several human studies assessing the relationship between physical activity, measured by health or activity surveys, and telomere length have produced conflicting results. The present study sought to explore the association between telomere length and physical fitness measured objectively as maximal oxygen uptake in endurance-trained athletes and sedentary controls.Seventeen marathon runners and 15 age- and sex-matched healthy, sedentary control subjects participated in the study. Medical history, demographic information, maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max), and peripheral blood lymphocyte telomere length were measured in all subjects. Statistical analysis was performed to examine the relationship between telomere length and measured variables.Athletes and sedentary controls had similar lymphocyte (0.97 ± 0.20 vs 1.01 ± 0.18; P = 0.6) and granulocyte (0.89 ± 0.11 vs 0.89 ± 0.12; P = 0.9) telomere lengths. Linear regression analysis showed age as the only variable significantly associated with telomere length (P = 0.007). There was no correlation between VO2 max and telomere length.In a cohort of healthy adult athletes and sedentary controls, there was no association between physical activity measured by VO2 max and peripheral blood lymphocyte and granulocyte telomere length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses 1991–2000 data on single-family housing sales from King County, WA, to provide new evidence relating to the effects of impact fees on housing prices. The hedonic regression method is used to examine the effects of these fees on existing housing as well as their differential effects on price as determined by housing quality. Impact fees raise existing home prices by about 83 percent of the amount of the fee. The increase is 103 percent for high-quality homes and is not statistically significant for low-quality homes. The owners of high-quality homes realize capital gains from impact fees. However, such fees do not raise the price of low-quality homes. To the extent that low-quality housing is more likely to be owned by low- and moderate-income households, which are often composed of racial and ethnic minorities, this finding has significant policy implications for the supporters of impact fees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]