Dedication of Land

Land dedication transfers property to public entity: roads dedicated to public (become public rights-of-way), parks dedicated to park district, schools dedicated to school district. Dedication is typically requirement of subdivision approval: planning board requires developer to dedicate road frontage, open space, or land for schools. Dedication process: recorded dedication document, transferred to public entity, becomes public property. Compensation: typically none (dedication is exaction), sometimes payment-in-lieu accepted instead of actual land. Tax implications: dedicated property is removed from tax assessment, reducing owner's property tax base (benefit). Forced dedications: cities require dedications for subdivision approval (sometimes controversial—developer expense passed to buyer). Understanding dedication: it's common condition of subdivision approval. Some developers fight excessive dedications (expensive); others accept as cost of development. Public dedication differs from private dedication: public transferred to government; private transferred to HOA or neighbors.