The Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments (SCCOG) is seeking qualifications and proposals from firms to prepare a fiscal impact analysis of land uses in southeastern Connecticut. The analysis will project municipal costs and revenues associated with current and future land uses for three prototypical urban, suburban, and rural municipalities in southeastern Connecticut and provide SCCOG with a fiscal impact model that can incorporate municipally-specific data inputs.

Interested firms must demonstrate knowledge and experience in real estate valuation, demographics, municipal services, transportation planning, and property tax policies.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Southeastern Connecticut is a 616 square mile region with a resident population of more than 286,000 people. SCCOG is comprised of twenty-two towns, cities, and boroughs, and is governed by the chief elected officials of those municipalities.

Earlier this year, SCCOG released a Regional Housing Needs Assessment which estimated that the region would need at least 7,000 additional housing units by 2030 to accommodate low projected levels of population growth. In 2019, SCCOG will conduct a follow-up study to estimate additional housing demand expected to be generated by hiring at Electric Boat in Groton and New London, by additional personnel expected to be stationed at SUBASE New London, and by related economic growth. As part of SCCOG’s ongoing technical assistance to its municipalities, SCCOG is commissioning this fiscal impact analysis to provide critical information to municipalities evaluating changes to land use policies that might expand opportunities for residential development. SCCOG is currently preparing a report on the number of children and adults expected to occupy future residential development (demographic multipliers) using 2012-2016 U.S. Census data for Connecticut and for New London County; that report and underlying analysis will be made available to the selected consultant.

PRELIMINARY PROJECT SCOPE

1. Analysis of projected municipal fiscal impacts of different land uses in southeastern Connecticut.

Impacts should be projected separately for three prototypical “urban,” “suburban,” and “rural” municipalities (one each) in southeastern Connecticut using representative real estate values, occupancy and use estimates, and municipal service costs to determine likely impacts. Fiscal impact analysis shall present annual average costs and revenues associated with existing land uses and annual marginal costs and revenues expected for new development.

Land use categories shall include but not be limited to

• Single-family residential
• Multi-family residential
• Low-density retail
• Low-density office
• High-density commercial/mixed-use
• Industrial/Flex space
• Privately-owned open space
• Publicly-owned open space/recreation.

Findings for residential land uses should address how impacts vary by residential unit bedroom count and by tenure, and any other relevant characteristics.

Analysis should include consideration of municipal costs including but not limited to:

• Education
• Public Safety
• Public Works
• Recreation
• General Government

2. Fiscal Impact Model for future use by individual municipalities

Model shall be similar to the one used to project above impacts but will allow users to enter town-specific data inputs to more precisely project the fiscal impacts of development in a specific place. Model should be user-friendly and accessible for use without the need of special software.

Deliverables

The project deliverables shall be a report that provides guidance to SCCOG’s municipalities on the impacts of future land uses relative to one another and an accompanying fiscal impact model that allows staff in individual SCCOG municipalities to customize findings using local data.