Actually the opposite, by taxing land in high demand urban cores it would incentivize more efficient use of the land - i.e. building up to support more occupant

Actually the opposite, by taxing land in high demand urban cores it would incentivize more efficient use of the land - i.e. building up to support more occupants or higher value economic activity. [1] Deregulating the zoning restrictions would allow more buildings to be built. [2] Here is a startling fact: in 2014 there were 142,417 housing starts in the city of Tokyo (population 13.3m, no empty land), more than the 83,657 housing permits issued in the state of California (population 38.7m), or the 137,010 houses started in the entire country of England (population 54.3m). Tokyo’s steady construction is linked to a still more startling fact. In contrast to the enormous house price booms that have distorted western cities — setting young against old, redistributing wealth to the already wealthy, and denying others the chance to move to where the good jobs are — the cost of property in Japan’s capital has hardly budged. This is not the result of a falling population. Japan has experienced the same “return to the city” wave as other nations. In Minato ward — a desirable 20 sq km slice of central Tokyo — the population is up 66 per cent over the past 20 years, from 145,000 to 241,000, an increase of about 100,000 residents.[3] With artificially constrained supply from Prop 13, there's dozens of empty lots and empty units just doing nothing of value. It's surreal to hear about stories from baby boomers about moving across the country to NYC/SF/LA/etc and being able to easily find a job and affordable housing in a major city, often while attending school at the same time. The same generation has now pulled the ladder up behind them to spit down on future generations. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax#Efficiency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax#Efficiency [2] http://urbankchoze.blogspot.ca/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html http://urbankchoze.blogspot.ca/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html [3] https://www.ft.com/content/023562e2-54a6-11e6-befd-2fc0c26b3c60 https://www.ft.com/content/023562e2-54a6-11e6-befd-2fc0c26b3...