This article presents empirical tests to examine if the comprehensive devel
opment area (CDA) where the town planning is more comprehensive has relativ
ely higher economic values than the area outside CDA. The three hypothesis
are: (i) CDAs have less environmental complaints than areas outside CDA; (i
i) property sales price variances in CDAs are smaller than those in areas o
utside CDAs; and (iii) property sales prices in CDAs are higher than those
in areas outside CDAs. These findings have important implications on effort
s to consider planning policy in land use decisions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scie
nce Ltd. All rights reserved.