by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
When Charles “Bucky” Clarkson was tapped by Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1998 to serve on the Commission on the Future of the South, his goal as a developer — and a Jacksonville resident — was to push local and state governments to implement a policy of fiscal impact analysis and examine how development affects local government costs and revenues prior to development.
The commission, which also included U.S. representatives, state cabinet members, college presidents and other business leaders in 14 southern states and Puerto Rico, established four concrete goals: build vibrant, secure communities, create healthy environments for our children, develop quality education and world class skills and establish broader economic partnerships.
The commission studied cities from Lexington, Ky. to Lee’s Summit, Mo. to Goshen, Ark. to find out which policies, initiatives, ideas, legislation, ordinances and zoning would, if duplicated, help communities reach those goals.
Now, four years later, the Southern Growth Policies Board, the think tank in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and the umbrella organization that founded the commission, has published “Choices for a Growing South,” the results of the 1998 study. In it, Jacksonville is featured as a pioneer in what the report says is one of the most effective mechanisms for building a better South — fiscal impact analysis.
“The idea is that some growth pays for itself and some doesn’t,” said Clarkson, chairman of the Clarkson Company. “It’s important to do a little research before we decide which growth to approve and which not to.”
The study cites as an example of exemplary community vision the incident that arose a few years ago surrounding the 5,000-acre parcel along Cedar Swamp, the development that was supposed to create nearly $200 million in tax revenue over a 15-year period. “Yet rather than jumping at the opportunity,” the study reports, “the City [Jacksonville ] fought to find funding to purchase and preserve the property.”
The study explains that the City’s decision was based purely on the bottom line: “A report showed that providing services to new development in the area would cost the City more than two times the amount of revenue brought in by the development in taxes.”
So, the state pitched in to purchase the property which will, in addition to saving taxpayer money, help protect the area’s water quality, tidal marsh, hardwood forests and endangered wildlife, which the study said was “a smart ecological decision and a smart business decision for the public sector.”
“But fiscal impact analysis is not the only tool that we can use,” said Jeannie Fewell, head of planning and development for the City. She said sometimes problems erupt when revenue is the only factor in determining approval for a development.
“What we’ve found is that inequities arise relative to commercial developments versus residential ones,” said Fewell. “Obviously residential communities are going to have a harder time making money back for the City.”
Jacksonville also works to analyze other factors like density and infrastructure ratios as well as revenue. Many times, Fewell said, the City enters into “development agreements” with contractors that guarantee money will be there if their developments put a strain on City resources, like roads and utilities.
“We’ve asked some developers to allocate money for schools and parks and to make sure if traffic gets bad, that they will pay to widen the roads,“ said Fewell.
Clarkson agreed that cities need to weigh more than just financial statistics when deciding approval for a project.
“Obviously something like the Mayo Clinic is great for the community, regardless of whether it generates cash,” he said. “One of the reasons why we work to get approval for hotel construction is because the tourism industry generates the kind of revenue that compensates for construction of other developments that don’t. It’s just important for planners to think about the long term effects on the cost to taxpayers.”
The fundamental premise of the report is that quality of life in a community is now the decisive factor for growth considering that the Internet and other technological advances have made it possible for companies to locate anywhere in the world. Traffic congestion, air pollution and other negative consequences of uncontrolled growth make it difficult to attract quality workers.
Some other southern communities praised for their foresight were Black Mountain, N.C. for its future search visioning projects that aggregate citizen input; Arlington, Va. and the Washington, D.C. suburbs for mixed-use developments, and Greenville County, S.C. for conserving 28,000 acres of the Blue Ridge Mountains called the Blue Wall.
In the introduction, Jacksonville is also praised for using performance indicators to help keep the community’s visioning efforts on track. The report mentions that 89 indicators for the annual report on the quality of life are used to track the community’s progress in education, the economy and the environment.