Reflecting Sustainability in the Analysis of Highest and Best Use: Evidence from Polish Municipalities

The combination of policy concerns over climate and demographic change, energy shortages, resource efficiency and the natural environment, has led municipalities to be expected to reflect sustainability in different actions, including the decision-making on a considerable amount of their real property assets. As more and more municipalities, use the highest and best use analysis for reviewing the configuration of real property asset portfolio to achieve public goals, this provokes an examination of the reflection of sustainability (environmental, economic and social dimensions) in this kind of elaboration. Thus, this paper aims to investigate how Polish municipalities deal with the incorporation of sustainability into the highest and best use analysis and its operationalization in four tests (legally permissible, physically possible, financially feasible, and maximally productive). The research goal was pursued based on quantitative research using surveys conducted between April and May 2022 among eleven municipalities (creating the largest metropolitan areas in Poland) and qualitative research by the content analysis of HBU analyses prepared for them in previous years.