The urban Demand for Urban-Rural Fringe Land.

The objective of this study is to estimate and analyze an urban demand function for undeveloped land in the urban rural fringe. The urban-rural fringe includes land along the boundaries of a city, in the suburbs, in small incorporated towns near the city and extending into the unincorporated, partially developed countryside surrounding the city. It is the area where land is in transition. This land market is basically a private market subject to public controls such as zoning and taxation. Emerging land-use problems, such as the costs of extending urban services to increasingly dispersed urban activity and unprofitable agriculture near urban centers because of rising property tax assessments, will likely lead to increased public control of land use. Contributing to the increasing importance of these problems are population growth, income growth leading to increased dispersion of population, migration, dispersion of business activity, land speculation, more highways and recreation, and zoning and taxation policies.