A few things to know this week: March 13, 2020
Happy Friday!
Every week, we round up some of the things we read, listened to, or watched that really caught our attention.
This week’s things to know:
Kevin and AJ interviewed on the GovLove podcast (ELGL)
Verdunity’s AJ Fawver and Kevin Shepherd are guests on this week’s episode of ELGL’s GovLove podcast, hosted by Kirsten Wyatt, where they discuss fiscally sustainable planning (in addition to answering a few fun, unrelated questions)! And keep an eye out because next Monday we’ll post our own interview with Kirsten Wyatt on the Go Cultivate! podcast. Double the fun!
Lessons From Texas Avenue (318 Forum)
At Verdunity, we celebrate the positive impacts that incremental development can have on our community. However, small developers often run into many minor challenges that can easily kill momentum on their projects. I wrote this article for a local paper in my hometown (Shreveport) about the challenges one of our local developers has had. I hope it will give your community some ideas about how to assist small developers in your community. – Tim
State Lawmakers Face Uphill Battles as They Seek to Tax More Services (Route Fifty)
It costs money to provide services in our communities. For years, cities have used money from new growth to subsidize services and keep taxes low, but now that the suburban expansion boom is slowing in most places, elected officials are looking at a variety of fees and taxes to cover these costs. Not surprisingly, taxpayers are pushing back, but at some point, something's got to give. Either taxpayers will have to pay the true costs of the services they want, or city and state agencies will start (or continue) to cut services. It's critical for communities to begin thinking about how to align your development pattern and city's business model with what citizens are willing and able to pay for. – Kevin
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We have an affordable housing crisis in this country, and if it's not already in your community, it will be soon. Much has been written about how city zoning and development policies encouraging larger lots, larger homes, and bloated suburban style infrastructure have played a key role in eliminating affordable options. There are still plenty of cities continuing this approach (unfortunately), but a growing number of cities have updated policies to allow for a more diverse mix of housing and neighborhood design options. As this article points out, the barriers to building smaller homes now lie more with the developers and banks who are "in a state of denial, and don't want to change their business model." – Kevin
Pandemics Are Also an Urban Planning Problem (CityLab)
With people wanting/needing to stay home from work or school due to the current crisis, it raises the question: do I have everything I need to sustain myself long-term? What is close to me? What resources are within walking distance? In this interesting and relevant read, all of this is explored and explained with great context for what is happening across the globe as we speak. – Ryan
TML Elected Officials Conference
Funding for infrastructure is a growing challenge in Texas (and everywhere, really). The recently approved property tax cap bill and proposed sales tax Iegislation is creating even more pressure on city leaders to figure out how to do more with less. I was invited by the Texas Municipal League (TML) to give a presentation to elected officials from across Texas last week on the topic of the growing resource gap in cities and how land use fiscal analysis and incremental development can be used to increase revenues and return on infrastructure investments without raising the tax rate. It was a great discussion that continued well after my scheduled speaking slot. If you weren't able to attend and would like a copy of the presentation, shoot me an email at kevin@verdunity.com and I'd be happy to send it your way or schedule a time to do a webinar with your team to walk through the slides together. – Kevin
Upcoming keynotes and workshops!
Check out our Upcoming Events page to see if we’ll be anywhere near you this spring. We’re currently confirmed for the the APA National Planning Conference in Houston and the ELGL national conference in Portland, OR—and we’ll be adding more events shortly!
Want to learn more about how fiscal analysis can help you make your city stronger financially?
We created a new sister website showcasing how we use math, maps, and money to help cities communicate your resource gap and explore ways to increase tax revenue and improve service efficiency without necessarily raising taxes.
Hey, friends in local government:
Have thoughts on any of the links above? Think we missed something essential? We’re discussing these topics and more over on our brand-new online community, exclusively for local government employees.* Sign up for the Community Cultivators Network and join the discussion!
* The network is currently only for those wonderful folks out there who work in local government. If you’re not currently working for a city, town, or county, we still love you (and are sure many of you would add value to the community), but we want to keep our commitment to making this a community focused specifically on our friends working in local government. Thanks for understanding!