San Clemente, California: Talega Valley Fiscal Impact Assessment. The Talega development ;one of the largest residential subdivisions currently planned for south Orange County will occur in areas currently within the City as well as County areas that are potential San Clemente annexation areas.

The City was concerned that the program as proposed was unrealistically dependent upon revenue generation from the commercial aspects of the project which might or might not ultimately come to fruition. If only the residential portions in fact proceeded, the concern of the City was that a potential fiscal imbalance would negatively impact the financial structure of the City now and in the coming years.

TNDG was retained to model the proposed development and conduct a series of sensitivity analyses on the various input variables to determine the degree to which the project would be self-sufficient under a series of more limited development assumptions.

Ventura County, California: Ahmanson Ranch Fiscal Impact Report. The Ahmanson Ranch encompasses approximately 5,400 acres in unincorporated Ventura County, of which 2,800 acres are master planned for mixed-use development. The remaining 2,600 acres of Ahmanson Ranch as well as all of the adjacent Jordan and Runkle Ranches will be dedicated as permanent public open space as part of the overall development agreement. The developed area will include 2,700 residential units, 150,000 square feet of retail space, 250,000 square feet of office space, a luxury hotel, two golf courses, and various public facilities.

TNDG was retained by the County of Ventura to review a previously submitted Fiscal Impact Report (FIR) for the project and to prepare an updated FIR based on recent revisions to the specific plan. TNDG's analysis took into account the fiscal impacts associated with the proposed development as well as the reduced property tax base resulting from the open space and public facility site dedications.

Given the large magnitude of the project, the County was particularly concerned about the long-term fiscal consequences of Proposition 13 restrictions on property tax revenues. In order to fully reflect these restrictions, TNDG evaluated the project's fiscal impacts over an extended (30-year) period.

Rancho Cucamonga, California: Fiscal Impact Evaluation. TNDG evaluated the fiscal impact of the proposed Etiwanda North development encompassing 5,000 housing units and over 6,000 acres. The project was in unincorporated County area, with the City of Rancho Cucamonga anticipating annexation after development began.

The City commissioned this FIR following concerns about the accuracy of prior FIRs for the project. The analysis was highly intensive in nature, and aimed to uncover "hidden" costs associated with new development that FIRs frequently overlook. Methods used toward this end included reconciling all departmental budget line items with the unitized costs of performing municipal operations and determining actual city-wide overhead costs rather than applying a generalized factor.

TNDG also undertook a sensitivity analysis to anticipate negative fiscal impacts associated with alternative land-use and operating scenarios. In addition, TNDG considered the fiscal consequences of the project's multiple Mello-Roos districts, and the fiscal impact on associated public agencies, such as the flood control and fire protection districts.

San Clemente, California: Dynamic Fiscal Impact Model A dynamic fiscal impact model has been developed for the City allowing for both General Plan and Specific Plan/Project land use projection scenario testing. The menu driven model has been designed to be usable in future years and allows City staff to easily enter new fiscal year budgets, existing land uses, current tax rates and other pertinent variables necessary to determine General Plan and Specific Plan fiscal impact projections.

The model uses both the existing land use factor driven methodology and the marginal increase methodology where possible for more accurate forecasting. The marginal increase methodology is used to project future fire, police, public works and community development costs based on projection algorithms applicable to the particular way each department incurs costs. The major variables that drive the algorithms can be easily changed if necessary for annual or more frequent updates.

Colton, California: Citywide Infrastructure Finance Program. TNDG worked in coordination with a team of planners and civil engineers to develop a long-range program to assure adequate funding for future infrastructure in the City of Colton.

TNDG's role involved the development of a menu-driven computer model which calculates the total development fees necessary to cover the City's anticipated capital costs in each major infrastructure category. The model served as the basis for developing a legally-defensible nexus between the fee structure and the infrastructure impacts associated with different types of development. The model was developed in a user-friendly format for ongoing use by City staff to calculate the development fees payable by specific project proposals. In addition to the model, TNDG also prepared policy recommendations to address potential funding deficits.

San Bernardino, California: Fiscal Analysis for Norton Air Force Base Reuse Plan. Working for the Inland Valley Development Agency (IVDA), TNDG prepared two major work products related to the reuse of Norton Air Force Base.

The first product was a recommended fee schedule designed to internally generate sufficient revenue to cover necessary infrastructure costs in the converted area. Current City fees based on the existing City fee structure were analyzed to obtain a base fee cost for development in the IVDA reuse area.

Additional fees necessary to recover infrastructure costs were then calculated taking into consideration project phasing and total land use. These additional fees were then compared against the base fees and market rate land values for project feasibility analysis and fee schedule recommendations.

The second product was a fiscal impact model and analysis incorporating updated land use information related to this project within the San Bernardino General Plan Fiscal Impact Model.