This thesis reports on the results of a survey sent by the author to 148 local and regional planning agencies in Virginia. The mail survey of all Virginia county, city, town, and regional planning agencies showed that computers have been widely accepted and integrated into the planning workplace. Smaller agencies, and those with greater budgetary constraints have yet to realize the computer's full potential, however. The survey yielded an %84.5 total response rate, and covered hardware, software, organization and personnel, and effectiveness issues. It was based upon a similar survey administered in Arizona, New Mexico, and California five years ago. A mere 13.6% of the 125 responding agencies reported no access to computers, far lower than any other previously surveyed state. The use of different platforms and software applications was widely reported, with inadequate training and funding problems cited as the most common difficulties with computers. Overall, most Virginia planning agencies found their computer systems as somewhat effective. The survey results showed that a higher annual budget increased computer access potential, resulting in a higher feeling of overall effectiveness. The survey showed the tremendous growth in the use of computers in planning agencies over the past five years, a trend that shows no signs of waning. With many different types of computers and applications, future planners need to be familiar with as many as possible to effectively perform their duties. At the very least, planners must know basic applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, and databases. The growing importance of other applications suggest the need for an even wider range of skills. Since most agencies reported little or no technical support, planners must have the knowledge to function on their own in a computer environment.

An insufficient amount of evaluation research has been conducted on Virginia's annexations. This study helps to fill that void by evaluating the Danville - Pittsylvania County annexation. The thesis attempts to determine if the city of Danville benefited from the annexation and if Pittsylvania County was able to recover from the loss that it suffered as a result of the annexation. In order to evaluate the annexation, data was collected and analyzed for seven research categories: urban services, planning, demographics, community leadership, local government cooperation, economic development, and public finance. In addition, government documents were reviewed to collect information that indicated the economic health of both jurisdictions and interviews were conducted to collect additional data. The annexation was beneficial for both Danville and the annexed area. It offered Danville the chance to expand its boundaries and to extend urban services into the annexed area which improved the quality of life for many annexed residents. Although Pittsylvania County lost $238,000,000 in tax base as a result of the annexation, by 1996, it surpassed its pre-annexation tax base, and housing subdivisions, commercial shopping centers, and small businesses were developing throughout the County.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a clear and cohesive plan to assist the City of New Orleans in rehabilitating historic homes and neighborhoods. One of the main attractions for visitors to New Orleans is the charm of its architecture. A larger portion of the architecture is in disrepair. Most of the neighborhoods that are suffering from blight are homes in low-income communities. These families have little help in maintaining these historic structures because of the increased costs. The administration of Mayor Marc Morial has decided that revitalizing the City's neighborhoods is of primary concern. This administration has developed a plan to help all residents of New Orleans by eliminating the blight. Each administration before this has attempted to develop a plan to meet this objective. All of these attempts have fallen short of meeting its goal. The only way to successfully address the housing environment in any urban setting is through partnerships. Resources have become scarce at all levels of government. The private sector cannot shoulder the entire responsibility of providing for everyone's housing needs. Thus the clear answer is the creation of partnerships between the public and private sectors. Chapter One introduces the scope and methodology of this thesis. In Chapter Two, the current housing environment is assessed. Housing studies conducted over the past decade are reviewed. Programs to assist families in securing decent and affordable housing are examined. The federal, state, local and non-profit programs are defined in this chapter. Chapter Three outlines a strategic plan to provide the framework to help revitalize blighted neighborhoods and increase home ownership. Home ownership is an important component for the partnership to utilize. This chapter defines the roles each entity needs to play in the partnership created. Examples of two successful programs are outlined. Partnerships are the primary vehicle for cities and towns to provide resources that neither the public nor private sectors can shoulder alone. Whether it is a literacy program, feeding th homeless or providing affordable housing, partnerships can help each of these issues. The expertise of each partner and their resources can benefit the entire community.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 180-188). / Large-scale real estate developments present unique regulatory challenges for local governments, prompting them to employ non-traditional, negotiation-based zoning approaches that offer flexibility unattainable via conventional zoning. Existing planning literature falls short of answering at least three broad areas of inquiry that can help local governments navigate this challenge. First, there is a general lack of understanding of if, when, and how local governments use negotiation-based zoning. Second, little empirical research thus has examined the negotiated outputs. Last, the politics of negotiated developments-who participates and influences these negotiations and under what conditions-also remains largely unknown. Each of these research areas is taken up in the three papers that comprise this dissertation. / The first paper surveys the current state of zoning practices; I investigate the experiences of Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle to explore if, when, and how they have negotiated zoning on a project-by-project basis. The second paper identifies the gains and losses of using a negotiation-based approach vis-a-vis zoning that closely adheres to the rule of law. I compare the experience of Boston and Seattle in more detail to explore this subject. The third and final paper delves deep into the micro-politics of negotiations for the largest private development in Boston to expose who actually influenced the negotiations and whether public participation mattered in the process. I find that all five cities employed negotiation-based zoning approach for large-scale developments, but their attitude towards negotiation varied widely city-by-city and even within a city. / I further establish that cities are likely to obtain more substantial public benefit packages when they negotiate zoning, but that there may be profound structural consequences for pursuing a regulatory regime heavily based on negotiations. Moreover, I provide empirical evidence that the process of negotiation can in fact accommodate meaningful public participation. Negotiated developments can become valuable opportunities for local governments to implement important planning objectives when they are used selectively and when the negotiation process is administered in a transparent and communicative manner. / by Minjee Kim. / Ph. D. / Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 48-49). / With New York City in the throes of a severe affordable housing crisis, the City government and housing advocates have worked tirelessly towards the identification of landlords whose profit model is based on fraudulent deregulation of the rent-regulated housing stock. The problem is that these bad actors are not so easy to identify. With the refusal of the controlling agency, the New York State Department of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), to release data on units lost from the market, along the widespread use of limited liability companies (LLCs) to obscure ownership, it's difficult to both track changes in the market and to associate those changes with problematic actors. / The role of this thesis is to explore the creation of a methodology incorporating pre-existing work at the city and civilian level ("civic tech") to identify suspect patterns of behavior, recognizing that improved access to ownership data is key to identifying spatial and temporal patterns of change in the classification and pricing of rent-stabilized units. By leveraging tax data scraped by civic tech activists and cross-referencing it with property data, a relational database and associated SQL queries can make possible the identification of concentrated patterns of behavior occurring on properties by owners who have otherwise proven to be particularly adept at staying hidden. Look-up tables have been incorporated to create a method of analysis which is systematic and can be maintained and augmented as new information on ownership and management is accumulated over time. / This work is split into three parts: The first part of this work will begin with an initial exploration into the academic literature on rent-regulated housing, as well as the role of civic tech to supplement that literature. The second part of this work will outline the data integration methodology, using one census tract as a case study to test the feasibility of this approach. Finally, the work will explore ways in which this work could be implemented on a larger scale and the potential impacts of a successful execution of this methodology on legislation and prosecution targeting predatory landlords. / by Meagan Cherita Patrick. / M.C.P. / M.C.P. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture and Planning, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-117). / by Kevin McGee. / Ph.D.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-103). / This thesis investigates a number of the issues currently pertaining to the introduction of a UK Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) vehicle. It uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative studies to evaluate whether the UK government should investigate and pursue this form of property equity securitisation. The report is split into three parts. The first describes the history of the UK securitisation lobby and investigates the theory and characteristics of the US REIT vehicle. It describes similar vehicles used throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia with specific regard to their varying restrictions and regulations. The second section uses Modern Portfolio Theory to examine the benefits of a securitised property vehicle within a mixed asset portfolio. The exercise tests the theory that the UK Public Limited Company is at a disadvantage to the American REIT and the Australian Listed Property Trust. Finally, an American REIT and an American C-Corporation are compared in a valuation exercise to assess the magnitude of the US REIT's tax benefits. The final section draws from the previous analyses to present a qualitative discussion of the key arguments with regard to different participants in the UK property market. In conclusion, it considers the pros and cons of a UK REIT vehicle in light of current UK macro-economic issues. / by Nicholas A. Spencer. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, September 2006. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-59). / This thesis presents an inquiry into the historical performance of core institutional real estate investment property during the 1984-2003 period. The focus of the analysis is on identifying systematic determinants of long run investment performance. The analysis seeks to increase our understanding of equilibrium asset pricing within this asset class, as well to provide some useful perspective for core portfolio strategic or tactical planning. This thesis extends earlier research by Geltner (1999) and Li and Price (2005) that indicated that a classical single-factor CAPM accurately modeled the cross-section of long-run total returns across the major asset classes, including real estate. The present thesis narrows that earlier focus to concentrate on the cross-section of long-run total return performance within the core institutional real estate asset class. This thesis uses the property level data of the NCREIF Index to construct portfolios and historical return indexes based on property size (value), and based on CBSA "tier" (that is, "upper", "middle", and "tertiary" cities from an institutional investment perspective). By using unique portfolios created from the NCREIF property set that represent possible factors that systematically affect asset pricing, such as property location, property size and property type, and calculating their beta estimates from historical data, this thesis tests various CAPM models including the single factor Sharpe-Linter model, as well as a multi factor Fama-French-like model. The beta for the portfolios was defined with respect to the performance of the aggregate of all NCREIF properties. This thesis finds that an equilibrium asset pricing model consisting of the two Fama-French-like factors, property size and MSA tier, plus property type dummy variables, explains some 90% of the long-run historical cross-section of core property portfolio returns. Interestingly, the "market factor", the beta with respect to aggregate NCREIF, is found to be insignificant, and possibly a negative influence on expected return. Furthermore, the size factor works opposite to the way it does in the stock market, with larger properties commanding an expected return premium. Surprisingly, the city "tier" factor gives an expected return premium to upper tier cities. Tests for an "income factor" (similar to the Fama-French book-to-market factor) found this factor to be insignificant. The most significant factor was found to be the property type. Thus, the equilibrium asset price model that seems to work well within the institutional core real estate asset class seems to be very different from, almost opposite to, the analogous model within the stock market. / by Arvind Pai. / S.M.

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 83-90). / This paper examines the relationship between governance and the foreign aid allocation of a World Bank agency, the International Development Association. In particular, the study investigates whether this major multilateral program's financial support for the development of the world's poorest countries consistently prioritizes good governance. A new dataset from the first decade of the twenty-first century, 2003-12, is used in three econometric estimation models to determine whether the quality of governance in recipient countries has had implications for aid allocation decisions. As in much of the literature in this area, the results are mixed. This finding itself raises important questions both about the relevance of a country's governance to aid allocation decisions and about the usefulness of good governance as a metric by which aid organizations are judged. / by Claire Teresa McCarville Markgraf. / M.C.P.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-111). / The Internet and Technology Revolution has created a new business environment, one in which traditional business rules are being challenged, and even repudiated. Information Communication Technology (ICT) has made a major impact to many business sectors, ranging from retail, stock trading, banking, logistics and the built environment. It has created new market opportunities for governments, companies, and offers existing businesses new ways to reach out to customers and to deliver services more effectively, often at lower costs. It has also allowed businesses to transcend geographical boundaries and enter new global markets. Clearly, this new environment poses new business challenges, and governments must now quickly figure out how to identify ICT opportunities and effectively compete in the new economy. Pervasive adoption of ICT will have an important multiplier effect for the economy through the transforming the way people live and boosting the way companies and industries do business. As a country, Singapore must also effectively address the challenges of the new economy. The vision is to position Singapore as a trusted global hub in the Internet economy, one in which ICT plays a dominant role in government, business and consumer transactions. Going forward, Singapore must also extend its reach to new markets and move up the value chain in its usage of ICT solutions. To achieve this, Singapore will need to create an ICT centric and equipped built environment in which e-lifestyle and ebusiness is pervasive, and where the hard and soft ICT infrastructures are well developed. / by Tuan Kee Donald Aw. / S.M.