Our Core Services

Fiscal Analysis

In most cities, the prevailing development pattern is simply not generating enough wealth. There’s a gap between services and amenities that residents say they want, and the actual resources cities have available to meet these expectations.

We’ve shown that it’s possible to align costs with what citizens and businesses are willing and able to pay for – now and in the future. Our fiscal analysis quantifies and maps the performance of existing patterns and then we use this information to point you to informed decisions on land use, infrastructure, economic development, and more.

Education

The first step to moving beyond business as usual is finding a common language that every stakeholder in a community can understand. We’ve found that financial resilience and fiscal analysis can be this language, but first we all need to speak it.

Our presentations, podcast, workshops, network and staff augmentation services are all built around the goal of improving awareness and understanding about issues, sharing best practices and inspiring more people to lead change in their community. This varied collection of education tools improves understanding of issues and opportunities in your community or for a specific neighborhood or project.

Community Planning

Too many plans are wish lists without much (if any) consideration of fiscal, environmental, social and political realities, and overwhelming lists of implementation recommendations. We do things a little differently. Our planning work always begins with an analysis of your city’s development pattern and business model to determine what your resource gaps are. Then, we work closely with the community to identify and prioritize implementation efforts that intentionally close this gap over time. Most importantly, our implementation approach focuses on connecting resources throughout the community to work together toward common goals. We call this cultivating community.

Municipal and Site Development Engineering

Making progress as a community ultimately involves taking action. Capital improvement projects are often the on-the-ground actions that address transportation, stormwater and water infrastructure needs. We work with municipalities and partner with developers to revitalize existing neighborhoods and build new places for people to live, work, learn, play and worship in your community. But that isn’t enough on its own, the design projects we take on have a unique focus; making your community more equitable, environmentally resilient, and fiscally strong – that’s our priority one, not an afterthought.