High land prices don't happen in a vacuum and then just magically drain productivity, they reflect demand. And demand from people with lots money generally means an area that is already currently productive - so wishing a productive area could have lower land prices is a bit of a non-starter. The limiting factor for the prices isn't policy, it's the availability of land (here Texas cities have a big advantage over coastal California ones that have to deal with mountains and oceans). DFW airport is over half the size of the whole city of SF, and larger than Manhattan. That sort of excess of availability is how you end up with cheaper land.