THE TAXMAN COMETH
 

Marty Colburn introduced the day’s program and speaker – urban planner Joe Minicozzi of the firm Urban3, who has been working with Marty and the city with an eye toward land use and ways to valuate the land and investment throughout the city and its near environs.

Minicozzi gave a very shortened program from the one he was to make later in the day for the larger public. It was a fascinatingly complex look at where and in what way tax revenues are generated in our area, by looking at the tax dollars returned on real estate and how these revenues are affected by density. He spoke of taxable value per acre and graphically showed how various density levels made spikes.

He showed how this value could be seen and assessed through visually expressive charts that he and his firm, who do this sort of data crunching across the country and world. The evidence of the viability of mixed use developments was clearly seen. And how the comparative tax returns on low density sprawl such as malls and other big box type stores flatten out in comparison.

On the one hand this may seem obvious when presented, but the data gives us new insight into the means of building wealth in communities. In short getting the biggest bang per invested buck. Finally, Minicozzi encouraged officials to review and harness the region with a growth strategy to maximize the dollars invested.

Minicozzi made a much more comprehensive and vigorous presentation to the community later in the day Tuesday. The Ticker had an excellent recap that can be viewed here: http://www.traverseticker.com/story/who-s-footing-the-tax-bill