Measuring Impacts of Land Development: An Initial Approach.

This report suggests a set of measures and procedures that local governments may use for estimating the specific impacts of development on a community's economy, natural environment, public and private services, appearance, housing, and social conditions. It also offers a framework and a methodology for a community to use in arriving at its own set of evaluation criteria. The proposed measures and data collection methodology were devised primarily for municipal and county officials and their staffs who are involved in land-use matters. The suggested measures and how they are formulated are presented in Chapter 1 of Part 1. Chapter 2 discusses the role of the measures--that is, how they may be used by local decision-makers. Chapter 3 focuses on key methodological issues that have not been totally resolved but that should be kept in mind when applying the measures. Chapter 4 indicates how the measures may be used to consider explicitly the impact of development on different population segments or clientele groups. Chapter 5 suggests some ways of presenting or displaying the findings from the impact measures. Part 2 deals with the more technical details of applying the proposed measures. It discusses the rationale, limitations, and alternative forms for each measure and outlines procedures for data collection in each instance. (Author/MLF)