> Half-agree: zoning restrictions and non-essential building regulations are a de-facto government handout to existing property owners.

The government represents existing property owners, so they are effectively a handout to themselves for creating and/or sustaining a desirable area. I don't see why things would be any other way.

> At the same time, apologists for rentiers will do anything except taxing unimproved land value (which among other virtues, functions as a vacancy tax to reduce unproductive speculation, and incentivize development).

LVT is a terrible idea. There's a reason why leftists support it, which is that it centralizes control over property values (and therefore control over said property) in the hands of the state.

If you want development, you don't need to incentivize it. You need to just stop getting in the way of it.