Capturing the Public Value in the Public/Private Zoning Agreements: Evidence from Italian Municipalities

In recent decades, the rules of planning have changed radically. From an authoritative approach, planning has become an activity of dialogue between the various operators that finance and accomplish urban projects. Public-private agreements have met with great success and they became an ordinary instrument in city planning. Agreements on zoning allow more advantageous planning rules and, as a result, landlord benefits a capital gain that is shared with public authority. While the nature of economic gain and the reasons why such is shared have been the object of a rather large investment by scholars, less effort has been devoted to understand how these concepts are applied in the administrative action of public authorities. The research investigates methodologies and techniques with which public administrations evaluate public/private partnerships in development projects resulting from zoning agreements. The study identified Veneto Region as a useful area of research. The administrative acts approved by the municipalities with regard to the public/private partnerships allowed by Veneto planning law (LR 11/2004) and by Italian national decree (380/2001, i.e. derogatory building permits) have been examined. The survey considers all the provincial capitals of Veneto region and, in order to have a representative sample of smaller towns, all the municipalities of the Vicenza province. Conclusions point out that most local authorities prescribe automatic or quasi-automatic procedures as assessment methodologies. They use values often established for tax purposes to determine the capital gain resulting from zoning rules modification. The application of automatic procedures does not necessarily lead, though, to quality results. Lastly, in territories substantially homogeneous, only a few kilometers away, levy rates can be very different, posing obvious and relevant problems of effectiveness and fairness.