Stand Your Ground
Communities Learn Valuable Growth Lessons
Friends,
When a wide open expanse of rolling hills and native grasses ranging as far as the eye can see turns into a housing development twice as big as the state's second-largest city, we know there will be environmental impacts.Disrupted wildlife corridors, threatened water resources, a cherished landscape irretrievably lost-just for starters.
We now also know that rural subdivisions, such as the behemoth
B.B. Brooks Ranch subdivision in Natrona County, Wyoming, come with a huge financial price tag for the public as well.
Earlier this month, the Sonoran Institute and our frequent partner,
Gabe Preston of RPI Consulting, presented the results of a fiscal impact report to Natrona County commissioners that spell out just how financially devastating large-lot rural development can be to counties forced to provide public safety, road, and other fundamental public services to people living in remote subdivisions. Its conclusions draw a direct correlation between land planning and bottom-line budget costs.
As Gabe told a standing-room-only crowd in the Natrona County courthouse on September 4, "When [counties are] making decisions that affect their development patterns, they are also making decisions about their fiscal future."
Long-term Impacts of Far-flung GrowthThe purpose of the study was to examine the impacts on taxpayers in Natrona County of the
B.B. Brooks Ranch development. In 2005, B.B. Brooks subdivided a 64-square-mile (that's approximately 41,000 acres) historic ranch north of Casper, Wyoming, into 798, 35 to 40-acre lots. With only 26 houses built so far (about 75 percent of the lots are reportedly sold), the county must still provide infrastructure and services to the few residents who are living there.
At the suggestion of Natrona County, we expanded the study beyond B.B. Brooks to examine the costs and revenues associated with three types of development common in the West: "ranchette," rural exurban, and metro infill. Ranchette lots are large, typically 35 acres or more, and are farthest away from municipal centers. Rural exurban developments, with lot sizes of between 6-10 acres, are also remote but not as far from city centers. Metro infill areas are subdivisions with about one acre or less in size, located within or adjacent to a city.
The results were clear: the farther the development is from the downtown core, the greater the drain on county budgets. The cost of providing services to ranchette and rural exurban developments far outweighs their revenues, while metro infill developments pay for much of their costs.
"No type of rural residential development pays its way," says John Heyneman, who led the Institute's work on the study. "It's a matter of which one loses the least."
How Big a Difference Can Location Make? The study showed that if 500 homes were to be developed on ranchettes in Natrona County over the next 10 years, it would cost the county $6.3 million in capital purchases (i.e., to purchase big ticket items like road graders) and annual operation losses of almost $3.5 million. Five hundred homes built close to a city, on the other hand, would only cause the county a capital loss of $230,000 and annual operating losses of $135,000.
With several hundreds lots still for sale in B.B.Brooks, the news to Natrona County was sobering, if not a complete surprise. "[The study] only reaffirmed what I already believed, which was it is difficult to provide services out in the county," Natrona County Commission Vice Chairman Bill McDowell said. "Our tax structure doesn't support having developments in the county. We just don't get enough revenue to justify the economic impact to the county."
Assuming Control of Their FutureThe B.B. Brooks Ranch may be their poster child for costly rural development, but with ranchette-style subdivisions wreaking havoc on county ledgers across the Intermountain West, Natrona County and Wyoming are hardly alone. Fortunately for them, B.B. Brooks also sowed the seed that could save Wyoming counties from falling into the same trap again. In response to the problems caused by this type of development and other scattered rural subdivisions, the Wyoming state legislature in 2008 passed an amendment to its 1975 Real Estate Subdivision Act, giving counties the ability to regulate large-lot ranchettes, which they couldn't do before. It allows counties to require that landowners file a development plan if they want to subdivide agricultural land into lots smaller than up to 140 acres. Previously, the minimum was 35 acres.
Natrona County is one of only four of Wyoming's 23 counties to assume the authority that this legislation grants. In addition to urging the county to enact fair, common sense regulations regarding rural development, the study recommends market-based policies that will direct growth closer to cities, such as impact fees that require developers to pay for the true cost of providing services to their subdivision.
Continued growth in the West is inevitable and economic development is vital, but this study clearly demonstrates that it is in everyone's best interest to steer growth in the right direction. We hope that by bringing hard numbers like these to their attention, we can help counties get the most bang for their buck with their development and land-use decisions, and keep losses - fiscal, ecological, and otherwise - to a minimum.
For more information about the report and our work in Natrona County,
click here.
Sincerely,
Luther Propst
Executive Director
Struck by the beauty and importance of the Colorado River Delta, Tom McMurray was inspired by the work of the Institute and wanted to help."There is a great potential for success in bringing the Delta back to life." 
