43 Examples of Public Property

John Spacey, August 18, 2021

Public property are assets, particularly land, that is owned by a government. In theory, this is dedicated to the public good whereby it is used to provide public space, preserve nature, build resilience, improve quality of life and create economic opportunity. In many cases, public property is leased to private entities and individuals or rights are granted to extract resources such as timber. The following are common examples of public property.

Airports	Beaches
Bridges	Brownfield Land
Canals	Community Centers
Community Gardens	Conservation Areas
Cultural Facilities	Cycling Highways
Cycling Paths	Deserts
Elevated Parks	Forests
Gardens	Grasslands
Harbors & Ports	Heritage Sites
Highways	Islands
Lakes	Military Bases
Mountains	National Parks
Parks	Playgrounds
Public Buildings	Public Hospitals
Public Housing	Public Infrastructure
Public Schools	Public Squares
Public Universities	Rail Stations
Railways	Rainforests
Recreational Facilities	Rivers
Roads	Sidewalks
Streets	Tunnels
Waterfront Areas

Brownfield land is land that is potentially contaminated. In some cases, government land is damaged by commercial use such as mining. In other cases, the government takes over abandoned brownfield land whereby the public may end up paying to clean it up.

Equipment, machines, infrastructure, vehicles, ships, spacecraft and other capital owned by a government can also be considered public property.

In some cases, private landowners are required to provide limited public access to their land. For example, a hotel that is blocking access to a public beach with its land may be required to provide a public access path.

It is common for governments to create independent or semi-independent authorities to administer land and infrastructure. For example, an airport authority that governs and administers an airport. Accountability for these organizations ultimately falls back to the government.

Public land may be held in legal structures known as trusts that prevent the government from selling the land or using it in certain ways.