Uncovering the land development potential of municipalities in France

International audience ; In France, municipalities play a crucial role in land use planning. For this purpose, they have three powers at their disposal: a regulatory power that enables them to define the rules of urbanization and building permits; an incentive power through the tax lever, as well as by playing a role as an animator of the local market with calls for projects, co-financing, and communication campaigns; and finally, power through land ownership, which allows control of the location and destination of a development project. The two primary powers in urban development are regulatory and incentive. However, the success of urban development ultimately depends on the willingness of investors to comply with regulations or withdraw from the market. Additionally, land ownership provides greater control over projects and the allocation of land resources. Municipalities and their groups, as the first public owners on the land markets, have significant resources to guide land use planning. However, in the current economic context, public actors are increasingly selling their land assets, thereby depriving themselves of the power of development. This is due to the spread of the neo-liberal management model and resulting austerity policies (Peck, 2012), which are forcing public authorities to reduce their expenditure and generate new revenue. In a context of rising land prices since the 2000s, they are even more tempted to sell their assets. The privatization of public land is a well-documented phenomenon in Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, and France, mainly concerning state railway and military land (Adisson and Artioli, 2020; Christophers, 2018; Whiteside, 2020). It is important to question the future ability of municipalities to control the development of their territory without land control as landowners.To provide decision-makers with clarity on this matter, this communication proposes an evaluation of the land ownership of the municipal block that could be utilized for development operations. This ...