Land-use regulation in Córdoba. Towards a sustainable and inclusive city?

Abstract

Land use regulations, as well as current planning guidelines are presented as a basis for sustainable, inclusive and equitable urban development in Cordoba. However, an analysis of their actual impact on the territory shows that these instruments not only do not reverse but actually lead to urban development below minimum thresholds for sustainability and efficiency. Additionally, they favor the concentration of the benefits of urbanization in the hands of fewer and fewer agents, excluding a significant part of the population. Current land use regulations were reviewed, together with recent urban plans and public projects, to define future territorial patterns. Concomitantly, a documentary review determined the specific sustainability and efficiency thresholds for Córdoba. Subsequently, both data were compared, to determine the sustainability of these patterns. Finally, they were correlated with a local real estate market survey, to ascertain their impact on urban land values. This causally determined the role of land use regulations in the local urban land market, which concentrates the benefits of urbanization both territorially and in large-scale developers/landowners, resulting in spatial production processes that exclude a significant portion of the population.

Keywords:
Urban land market; Urban agreements; Land-use regulation; Urban sustainability