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The Creeping Crisis. Balancing Land Uses in Kalamazoo County Kiran Cunningham and Hannah McKinney April 14, 2003. In most jurisdictions, developers pay all of today’s costs of development.
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The Creeping Crisis Balancing Land Uses in Kalamazoo County Kiran Cunningham and Hannah McKinney April 14, 2003
In most jurisdictions, developers pay all of today’s costs of development • But resident demands for urban-like infrastructure will increase as a jurisdiction becomes more suburban • Are there unintended consequences of our growth patterns that might stymie quality development in the future?
Two definitions • Rural = Farmland and open space predominates. Residents do not expect or demand urban services and amenities such as sidewalks, curb and gutter, sewers, and population densities are so low that urban public services are unnecessary. • Suburban = Residents value rural character, but expect and demand urban services and amenities, including wider streets, sewers, and sidewalks. Also, as population densities increase, more police and fire protection are necessary.
How much will these future amenities cost? • Sewer and road construction costs vary widely depending upon prior infrastructure development, soils, topography, size and depth, materials, property acquisition costs • But here are some rough estimates
Cost estimates • Cost of pavement, sub-base, and drainage for road project runs about $500,000 per lane mile • Cost of pavement and sub-base alone is about $300,000 per lane mile • Typical sewer construction in urban right-of way is about $500,000 per mile of main • But any deep tunnel construction can bring sewer construction up to $1 million per mile Source: Ken Collard, Public Services Director, City of Kalamazoo
Who pays for this? • Residents assume that their taxes will cover any services that they require. • Many are willing to pay more to finance additional school construction • But what about better roads, sewers, water, more police and fire, particularly when residents believe their taxes are high enough as is??? • Think about all the failed millages in recent years.
Results from almost 100 costs of community services studies • In these studies, costs of actual services to residents is never completely covered by the taxes they pay, particularly in suburban areas • Median values of the ratio of tax revenue to service costs from these studies: • Residential land: for every $1 of tax revenue generated, $1.15 is spent in local service provision • Commercial and Industrial: per $1 of tax revenue; $.27 received in local services • Agricultural, open space, and forest land: Per $1 of tax revenue: $.36 in services
The problem is not residential development; rather, it is whether the residential development is sufficiently balanced by other types of land uses
What does this imply for Kalamazoo County? • We used the median cost of community services figures to see how well residential uses are balanced with the other kinds of uses that subsidize residential costs. • Here’s what we found.
Difference Between Estimated Tax Revenues and Estimated Cost of Services
High quality industrial and commercial development • Require sufficient large lots already correctly zoned with adequate transportation access and other infrastructure already available • Very few places in Kalamazoo County have such lots available • We are not creating an environment that is physically conducive to industrial development
Vulnerability of farmland to development • Agriculture can balance high quality residential development just as commercial and industrial development do • Future land use maps actually plan for the future fragmentation of agriculture
In Sum • Residential development tends not pay for itself, particularly in suburban type settings • Lower density housing is less efficient than higher density in generating sufficient tax revenues to cover service costs • Need balanced growth to pay for the services that residents expect and demand
We are lagging behind other Michigan counties • 9th out of 83 from the bottom in the % increase in tax base growth from 1995 to 2000 • 9th from the top in the real earnings/job for residents in 2000 • But in the % change in real earnings/job from 1990 to 2000, we are 26th. • And out of the 22 most urban counties, we are 2nd from the bottom (only Flint’s Genesee county did worse) • How can we possibly fund the kinds of local governmental services citizens will want in the future?
What can we do over the next few years? • Create countywide GIS capability • Develop a real countywide future land use map (i.e., plan regionally) • Develop a Kalamazoo County Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program for farmland preservation • Change governance system of wastewater system to allow growth to happen that benefits all jurisdictions
What else can we do? • Increase the supply of affordable housing throughout the county • Increase infill development in established communities • Implement the watershed management and stormwater plans • Link transportation planning with land use planning
And also • Use open space and New Urbanist design principles to create attractive higher density developments and protect sensitive natural features • Fund and implement community capital improvements such as the Northside BR-131 interchange
