Hedonic Modeling Data for Land Use Regulations and Water Quality in Buncombe County, N.C.

The State of North Carolina's Water Supply Watershed Protection Act of 1989 required local governments to adopt land use measures selected watersheds to protect the water supply emanating from those watersheds. We examine vacant land prices in and around the Ivy River watershed of Buncombe County, NC, at the time such regulation took effect in 1998. Our results suggest that costs of watershed development restrictions are borne primarily by those vacant land owners in the watershed for whom the development restrictions make land subdivision infeasible. We find benefits accruing to land owners on the public water supply or who are adjacent to creeks.