For decades, local governments have guided land development in the United States with antiquated techniques like zoning and a general lack of expertise. Growing public concern over this situation prompted the American Law Institute (ALI) to investigate the possibility of model legislation aimed at providing comprehensive land use planning at the state as well as municipal level. This spring, after more than a decade of research and drafting, ALI adopted its Model Land Development Code.¹ Viewed by some observers as a major breakthrough, criticized by others for its failure to eliminate the dominance of local government in land use decisions, the Code has already succeeded in spurring discussion of various innovative techniques for the regulation of land development. One such technique, embodied in the Code, is land banking, the practice of public acquisition of developable land. Perhaps, the most radical of the Code's suggested planning methods, land banking raises a host of unresolved legal, economic, political, and environmental issues.

As a concept, land banking is relatively simple. Large-scale public purchase of the fee or less than fee interest in lands on the urban fringe replaces the traditional system of attempting to impose development controls on privately owned land. This "bank" of land is then gradually released to private parties.