What is land swap?

From available literature Land Swap features as a solution to problems of international land ownerships disputes, like the one between Israel and the Palestine. However, the commonest knowledge of what constitutes land swap is to substitute a piece of land in one place with another either in the same locality or elsewhere depending on the […]

From available literature Land Swap features as a solution to problems of international land ownerships disputes, like the one between Israel and the Palestine. However, the commonest knowledge of what constitutes land swap is to substitute a piece of land in one place with another either in the same locality or elsewhere depending on the project preferences of the parties involved in the swap.
In British Columbia, there is the case of Haro Woods, a forest in Cadboro Bay which was twice eyed to host large sewage treatment plant, but redesigned to be preserved as parkland, minus a parcel dedicated to an underground sewage holding tank. According to Edward Hill of the Victoria News, the mayor and each councilor of the Saanich council voiced strong support for a land swap with the Capital Regional District (CRD), which would give the municipality ownership of the majority of the forest. It was envisaged that the proposal would be of huge value to the Cadboro Bay community and its long-term goal to have Haro Wood substantially preserved and protected.
Under a deal, the CRD would give Saanich 4.33 hectares of forest in exchange for 1.5 ha to house the 5,000 cubic metre underground tank, which was designed to capture overflows from sewer lines during major storms. Saanich will retain another 1.4 ha of forest next to the tank site. The entire 8.5 ha forest, including a portion owned by the University of Victoria, should appear as one, after vegetation is planted over the tank.
Before the land swap is finalized, council needs to rezone the forest parcels from residential to Nature Park and a utility zoning specifically for the tank. After a public hearing, council would vote on the rezoning. Because of the transparency of the procedure, it happened that no one at the meeting voiced opposition to the rezoning and land swap.
The Arab Israel land swap deal on the other hand is as controversial as the tense relationship between them. According to khalid Amayreh of the Al-Jazeera, the Israel Arab community, which accounts for a fifth of the country’s total population, have strongly rejected an informal but highly controversial proposal for swapping some Arab communities in Israel proper for Jewish settlements in the West Bank in the context of a prospective final peace deal with the Palestinians. The proposal was made by the Israeli Foreign Minister, who argued that the arrangement was by no means taboo and that it would serve and expedite the nationalistic aspirations of both sides.
The Israeli government has yet to officially elaborate on the contentious proposal. A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister refused to comment on the subject, which observers in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories interpret as indicating that Netanyahu and Lieberman don’t see eye to eye on the issue. Israel continues to demand that, in the context of a final peace agreement, Palestinians must recognise Israel as a “Jewish state”.
Above are only few of the prominent cases of actually what constitute the land swap concept. One would agree that there are swaps of a land with another, at the same time decipher the difference between what is obtained with the ongoing land swap policy in the FCT.
We have once made the assertion that “wherever our handlers got their model of land swap, it is different from the normal swapping of land with another land in order to achieve different targeted goals of the interested parties. Referring to the Abuja model as land swap is a misnomer”.
This attracted very coarse response from the FCTA. We still maintain that what is introduced is financing urban infrastructure with land value as put forward by G. E. Peterson, which is completely different from the real concept of land swap. As it is, with the climate of official corruption in land administration, Abuja is not a fertile ground for the success of that model.