The making of garden cities: Milton Keynes, Irvine and Tsukuba (California, Japan, England)

The objective of this paper is to develop some theoretical underpinnings on the role of the Commons in the urban development process by examining three new cities, i.e. Irvine/USA, Milton Keynes/UK, and Tsukuba/Japan. At an initial period of development, the planners faced the “planner's dilemma,” between attracting residents and building urban diversity. While the level of urban services was the critical determinant for people to move to a new city, diversity depended on the size of the city. Static and dynamic game models prove the existence of multiple Nash equilibria. The equilibria depend on the general perception of development speed. Thus the solution to the dilemma was to create the expectation that the city would grow in no time. At Tsukuba the planners relied on the relocation of over 10,000 scientists. In Milton Keynes, the planners even stepped up development in adverse situations.; As the new city evolved from infancy to maturity, the challenges for city builders shifted from the creation of urban diversity to the protection of open space. An integrated land ownership, i.e. local monopoly, helped to preserve open space by internalizing development externalities. In Milton Keynes a special public corporation was entitled to the entire designated area. Strong local opposition overturned a similar approach in Tsukuba, but through the Land Readjustment Program landowners formed cooperatives for integrated development. Single landownership in Irvine created a balance between preserving the eco-system and profit maximization. However, the problem of urban diversity remained. In the case of Tsukuba, the government failed to achieve tight land use control but that absence spurred a more diverse urban culture, suggesting the need for a balance between control and freedom in city planning.; While a regional drive has waned for Milton Keynes and Tsukuba, Irvine continues to grow as an employment center. However, appreciation of property values and growth control push new in-migrants further to the outlying areas, causing another demographic shift. “Nested Problems of Regional Commons” in a growing region result in a gridlock among local self-interests. Confrontation among communities over an airport illustrates the difficulty of creating regional Commons.