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Proposed Cost of Growth Study The Metropolitan Council's approach for determining development costs in the region is to conduct detailed studies ofa number of cities and school districts that are at different stages of the development process. The analysis will examine the fiscal impact of development for two growth scenarios- continued regional trends and the Council's growth strategy-and for a number of land use patterns. The case studies for each community will be used to determine the marginal costs of providing services for expected growth or redevelopment in the community. These results will then be used to develop a larger fiscal impact model for the region.. - A consultant will be hired to conduct in-depth interviews, gather local data, prepare a level-of service paper and build the fiscal impact model. Council staffwill provide regional data on the forecasts and growth scenarios, as well as help the consultant with land use pattern assumptions and similar information. A liaison group, described below, will be a reaction group throughout the process, helping to shape the assumptions and direction of the work and to review the results of the final report. Organizational Phase: Establish liaison group. Create a liaison group of organizations most likely to be affected by the results of the study to help Council staff and consultant with study design and to critique results along the way. This group would have local officials, an Association of-Metropolitan Municipalities representative, county officials, representatives from school distriCts, special interest representatives, builders/developers and members from the Council's "Cost of Growth" study group that is already meeting with Council staff. Members of this study group include University of Minnesota faculty, Minnesota Department of Agriculture staff, Minnesotans for an Energy Efficient Economy staff, the Builders Association, the Land Stewardship Project, and the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources. Initial meeting will include review of the lessons learned from recent local studies on the cost of growth. Sign up communities. The case study communities are going to be required to provide some time and resources for this study and therefore must agree in advance to work with the consultant. The incentive for them to participate is that they will have an individual fiscal analysis done for their community. At tl)is st~p,eight communities (two central cities, two fully developed cities, two maturing suburbs and two developing suburbs) arid two school districts must be signed up to participate in the study. Case Study Design: Develop basic assumptions (Council staff with help from consultant). The study wilt look at two scenarios--current trends and the Council's adopted Regional Growth Strategy. The Council staff has community-level population, household and employment forecasts for these two scenario's, but various land use categories (residential and commercial! indu.sirial) must be detennined for each of the selected communities and school. districts. Finally, nonfiscal impacts (such as pollution, housing affordability, crime, etc.) will be studied by the Council staff along with the fiscal impact analysis done by the consultant. The list of non fiscal impacts to be studied will be developed in this step. . Allocate forecasts:to case study communities. CounciL staff will allocate forecasts to each land use type. _ . under both scenari.os for the sample communities and school districts. Population and household. forecasts will be altocated to residential land use categories, and employment forecasts will be allocated to commercial/industrial categories. Case study participants will be asked to confirm that the allocations are reasonable, at least" for the purpose of the study.