Mapping the Fiscal Dimensions of Land Use Policy

Course Details

An increasingly common consideration planning departments must address when reviewing proposed developments is the impact they will have on the City's budget. New or infill development alters the fiscal implications of a parcel of land, and disentangling the impacts can be tricky. Consider the effect of redeveloping an outdated and underutilized retail strip center into residential apartments: there may be a decrease in sales tax revenue generation but a large increase in property tax generation, and the intensification of population density in the area can increase public safety costs the City must expend to serve the area. Land uses, location, market conditions, and many other factors affect a project's fiscal impact.

Economic & Planning Systems, in partnership with Esri, has taken its fiscal impact analysis methodology and integrated it into Esri's Urban platform to provide the City of Fresno with an interactive and dynamic modeling tool to allow public sector agencies to run state-of-the-art fiscal analyses on a broad range of projects through one single interface. In this session, learn how the tool harnesses 11 different land use prototypes and over 150 modifiable inputs to empower Fresno staff to estimate fiscal impacts across their city.

Learning Outcomes

• Consider how emerging technologies can streamline and improve planning functions and generate more accurate and customized results.
• See how spatial factors play an important role in quantifying the fiscal impacts of development.
• Gain insight into novel ways in which GIS software can be leveraged for Planners.
• Explore resources to integrate adaptation sciences and climate-societal interactions to inform planning processes.