Everything that happens on the ground, every spatial intervention, has an impact on land and its value. It follows that the ability of governments to regulate the matter in its relations with private developers and landowners is of extreme importance for the civil society as a whole. Nowadays, in consideration of the fact that municipalities are short on financial resources, the need on the part of local governments to recapture part of the increase in the value of land that is generated from change in land use and other public investments, and so make landowners and developers contribute to the realization and maintenance of the public parts of the city, is ever more compelling. This article presents a historical review of the planning and fiscal measures that have been introduced in Italy since 1865 to deal with the question of betterment value with the intent of showing its importance and the specificities of the subject in city planning for central and local government.