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Late reply since I have insomonia... >nothing since the land will now bring many more >dollars in property taxes as a R-1 zoning >rather thag ag or farm land . Around here, you lose money on residential and commercial development. Cost of services exceed the tax revenue. $8,000 a kid...need a $450,000 home to cover the cost of a one kid family around here without raising everyone else's taxes up. Next town over has a Lowes / Target shopping center going in. Already hired a 5th Resident State Trooper (they don't have a local PD) at a cost of $95,000 just in anticipation of the extra calls for bad checks and shoplifters. Commercial buildings and improvements depreciate in value so their taxes paid go down; Trooper costs go up by 3% a year. Maybe 1/2 the taxes paid by the shopping center are a "net" gain for the town next year over expenses...20 years from now, the town will be paying more to support them then they collect. The two towns in my area that added the most residents over the last 15 years -- both went from 5,000-something to 8,000-something...and that was enough to tip the volunteer ambulance over the breaking point during the day. $150,000 for each town each year to provide paid daytime EMTs. Manufacturing, Utilities, and undeveloped land are the only things that have a positive impact on taxes around here. Not that I like onerous zoning -- I'd rather see towns buy the land outright to control it. But development has a real and significant fiscal impact on everyone. At least 1/3rd of what I pay in property taxes today is attributable to population growth in my town over the last two decades...if we didn't have those houses, we wouldn't be spending that money.
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