Explaining The Appearance and Success of Voter Referenda For Open-Space Conservation

The protection of open space from the advance of urban sprawlhas emerged as one of the more pressing environmental issues in the United States. Open space is generally understood to be a public good that will be under-provided without policy interventions. Policy-makers have begun e¤orts to protect open-space using various instruments including zoning reg-ulations, development taxes, urban growth boundaries, conservation easements, and public acquisition of undeveloped land. Increasingly, citizens are also becoming directly involved in open-space conservation through ballot initiatives designed to implement mechanisms for public land acquisition. Nearly 1,000 jurisdictions at the state, county, and local levels held open-space referenda between 1998 and 2003, and approximately 80 percent of these initiatives passed, raising over $21 billion for open-space conservation. The proliferation and high success rate of open-space ballot initiatives raise several economic and policy-relevant questions. What factors contribute to the appearance of an open-space referendum in a jurisdiction? How does an initiatives funding mechanism such as a bond, property tax, sales tax, or income tax a¤ect the way citizens vote? How responsive are favorable votes to the costs of an open-space initiative? How do socioeconomic characteristic