Agenda Packets - 1995/02/06 - Laserfiche WebLink

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_ T F 4S .1, PIS of the value of urban underground land, Pasqual and Riera (1990) state: great deal of resources are devoted to implementing a whole variety of projects in subsurface land. Studies are usually undertaken to identify the optimal allocation of those resources. Thus, in the decision making process, public administration takes into account all sorts of costs and benefits in order to achieve the best cost effectiveness of I'` the investment. However, there seems to be one relevant cost constantly ignored in I such studies: the price of the underground land consumed by the project." II Regarding the reasons that the value of subsurface land has been ignored, Pasqual and Riera suggest: There is no specific market for subsurface land • i-.- .pers-usually ignore-the-opportunity-cost of-additional-underground development Rights to underground land are bought and sold with the rights to surface land area and thus there is no financial link to the use or misuse of subsurface space • Historically, the expectation of the need for using underground space was small compared to the amount that existed and underground space was thus usually treated as a "free good" • Utilities were often granted free use of the space beneath public streets on the basis of public good and a lack of competing demands for the space • Because there is no specific market, the price of underground space is not obvious • If the price is not obvious, it is difficult to include the value in cost-benefit analyses If the value of underground space is not considered in cost-benefit analyses involving underground facilities, the analyses may not provide the optimal solution among several alternatives or the correct answer to whether a project has a net benefit or cost. Of particular relevance to utility placement is that more of the resource of underground space may be consumed than is justified when there are competing technologies or configurations available which use less underground space overall or less valuable underground space at greater depths. In the absence of strict planning controls, the treating of underground space as a "free good" can and has resulted in a chaotic use of the underground. In Tokyo, city planners are looking to layers of underground space at depths of 50 m or more to find zones which are clear enough from existing structures to allow substantial new infrastructure facilities to be built. Perhaps, as in all major cities, this need to go deep for new facilities could be mitigated with better long-range planning and better accounting of the value of the resource usurped by earlier structures. f 2.2 Value of Land in Public Rights-of-Way It is perhaps of interest to estimate in broad terms what the total value of the land in public rights-of- I WaY might be in a major city even though that value could never be realized in direct sale because access and services are necessary for the land to have significant economic value. Localized values are important, however, if land in the public-right-of-way is sold or traded with regard to a specific development. In small parcels, the value of the public land should approach the value of the adjacent private land. 9 'T r.