> On the parks/“natural land”: would you rather land exist as an empty razed dirt field for speculators to wait to sell, or given back to the city?
That seems to be jumping to an extreme end, that someone owns an empty plot of land that has been cleared and destroyed to bare, dead dirt. My concern is that the same incentive pushing one to sell a pile of dirt would exist for someone owning an undeveloped, natural plot of land. My earlier caveat still exists, maybe this isn't a concern in dense areas though it would add some blockers for anyone interested in turning developed land back into a park.
> Taxing the land value means there’s no incentive to own land that won’t be productive.
One concern I have is the expectation that all land should be optimized for productivity. That goes against my own view on land, I don't think we humans have some innate right yo extract all available value. I also don't like that this likely goes against concerns of environmental impact.
> The city or municipality can guarantee land it owns can have natural growth on it
I can't quite put my finger on a better way to describe this, but it just feels off to me that only the state would be able to allocate land as parks, natural space, sanctuary, etc. Obviously what you are proposing wouldn't block anyone from doing this, but it would create incentives that make it unlikely.
> As to how to value the land: the market decides.
The market only decides on my land's value when I sell it. Until then, is the land valued at what I paid for it? If so that is at least predictable I suppose, that would be helpful so I know what my future tax burden would be.
> The government can charge for services like upgraded electricity and keep the land value low, or they can bring the electricity to the land and count “lots of electricity available” as part of the value of the unimproved land.
I wasn't just asking about how enough power gets to the land - not sure why the government would be responsible for that unless government and industry merge. I was meaning to ask with regards to the environmental impact angle. Taxing to create incentives to build as high-value improvements as possible would inevitably lead to a drastic increase in a locality's energy requirements. Where does it come from, and how do mitigate the environmental impact?