Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/127088
Sarasota News Leader May 3, 2013 Beginning last fall, the commission asked county staff to meet with development firms such as Neal and Schroeder-Manatee — the company that won approval for the Villages of Lakewood Ranch South — to hear their concerns. At the top of the eventual list of "2050 Policy & Regulation" issues? Fiscal neutrality, a rule designed to ensure that "no additional costs" for county infrastructure "are borne by those other than the residents" of the new neighborhoods, in the words of county LongRange Planning Manager Allen Parsons. Page 24 water supply, stormwater management, courts, jails and more. Even new costs to libraries are factored in. "Fiscal neutrality analysis is kind of the first step," says Parsons. "Take a look at the development and estimate what the impacts will be on the cost side and then on the revenue side." Developers are required to provide the county with a fiscal neutrality report at each phase of a project; that report is then reviewed by the county and by an independent analyst. Each new report looks forward and backward, says That means a new development, through im- Parsons, to make sure that projections used in earlier analyses were accurate. pact fees and eventual sales and property taxes, should cover any costs the county will One example: a 2010 fiscal neutrality report incur by offering services to the community. submitted for the Neal project that would beThat list of services ranges from roads and come Grand Palm. The report estimated fusidewalks to public transportation, schools, ture household numbers, tax rates and more, The 2050 Plan was designed to govern development east of Interstate 75, where scattered cattle and horse farms create a pastoral scene. Photo by Rachel Hackney