[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Economic impact analysis

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Brockett, Aaron

In advance of our development fees discussion tomorrow night, I wanted to raise an issue regarding the Economic Impact Analysis by TischlerBise. The analysis gives a total economic impact to the overall city economy based on the number of additional jobs expected over the next 10 years. But, for the impact fees we're considering, we're assessing a per sf cost to new construction based on the costs to the city for maintaining service levels after the new construction is complete.

So the study provides economy-wide impact on a per job basis, while the fees are assessed on a per sf cost for providing government services. Those seem like apples and oranges and to me it gives the economic impact study limited utility.

Instead, I would think we would want to know the revenue to the city from new construction from taxes, fees, etc, broken down on a per sf basis. You would want it broken out into taxes/fees for construction itself and then the annual tax/fee revenue from the new building. You would exclude impact fees and only include things like use tax, property tax, sales tax on retail, etc. That would allow you to get an idea of the per sf revenue benefit to the city.

Is it possible to get such a study in advance of our September 20th meeting? I think it would be extremely useful for our final decision on the impact fee numbers.


Thanks,

Aaron Brockett

Boulder City Council member

brocketta at bouldercolorado.gov

(720) 984-1863