Abstract
Land development in most Saudi cities including Jeddah is generated by formal land subdivision and informal land development usually referred to as unplanned settlements. Both types of developments contributed to urban sprawl and other urban challenges. Jeddah Municipality attempted to improve land development by encouraging large urban developments. Recently, Jeddah Municipality approved four large urban developments which appear to manifest encouraging implications for urban growth and land development that this paper aims to explore. The paper examines the policy and market contexts that govern land development in general and large urban developments in particular, in order to pave the way to uncover their implications for city growth and land development. The data gathered for this purpose is drawn from published and unpublished reports from relevant authorities. It is found that large urban developments as new mechanisms of land development appear incapable of overcoming key challenges that face city growth and existing land development.
► Urban development in Saudi Arabia takes the form of both formal and informal land development. ► There is an inadequacy of land policy measures to limit urban sprawl and to stop the growth of unplanned settlements. ► Potentially, large urban developments might be expected to improve the land development process in Jeddah. ► Such large urban land developments pose many challenges to planners. ► One beneficial outcome might be an increase in the number of public private partnerships in land development.