From Expropriations to Development Agreements: Developer Obligations for Public Services in Israel

Abstract

If the term “developer obligations” seems unfamiliar, the policies which it denotes are familiar to anyone who deals with planning law: developer obligation s are requirements placed by planning authorities on developers to supply some public facility or amenity as a condition for granting a development permit. Developer obligations come in many forms: land dedication, payment of a fee, construction of a public facility, or supply of a public service. These requirements are known by varying names in many countries: in the U.S.A. they have come to be known as “exactions”, in Britain as “planning gain”, and in France as participation. Other countries may have many terms to indicate each separate tool, or no specific term at all. The term “developer obligations” is here proposed as an international term that, hopefully, has fewer culture-specific connotations than the other terms mentioned. I will use “developer obligations” in the broadest sense, to include some indirect mechanisms for financing public services, such as the land betterment tax, while “exactions” will be used to indicate the methods directly focused at financing such services.