when has u.s. local/city/urban/metropolitan politics not involved/ not revolved around interaction between private power and public policy (hey, there's that dialectic thingy), certainly growth of public sector - whether local/state/federal during 20th century did little to offset influence - and authority, in many instances - of private sector in political decisions involving land use (or anything else, for that matter), no matter expanding government responsibility for stuff, private interests have retained control over important socio- economic resources, this is basic fact of u.s. political history...
so construction & redevelopment are accomplished through private contractors, with government using eminent domain to acquire property, adjust taxes, and write down cost of land to purchasers, recall that so-called 1950s/60s urban renewal allowed - by federal statute - publicly subsidized housing only where it could be shown that private sector could not 'supply' the need...
from perspective of most elected officials, paul peterson's (not donna reed's tv show son) 'unitary interest' theory makes sense, answer to problems of revenue, jobs, service provision is economic growth, hence, they see little reason to forego promoting local environment favorable to private sector... mh