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Residential de"lopment that cOnsumes agriculrurallaruJ and open space ~ slowly depleting county coffers. In the debatt: over gro.....th in the rural West, there is a hvely dlSCUSSKm about the costs and bene6tsof"residennal sprawl." Advocates for gro.....th see any new devel- opment as an economic opp:munity and as good for the tax base. CritiGS see unhau1pered grov.th as unrle1:essarily coruiumptive of land ;md fLSCa.lly draining. Custer County, Colorado, is the fifth fastest groy,ing county in the COUJ1. try-p:lpUlation has almost doobled in the past decade. \l'irh growth comes land use change: the cooyemon of agricutruralland and Of'l'n space to residential and cammer: cia! uses. The effects of these changes are otten complex, with far reaching implica- tions for local residents. In oroer to understand the fl5C3l impacts of land use "change, the San Isabel Foundation. Custer Heritage Committee, Sonoran lnstltute,.and American Farm land Trust teama:l up to sponsor a Cost of Community Ser,ices (O:X::S) study, which measures the impact different Lmd uses have on ml." county's tax base. . The srudyshcm."S that: . Agriculnualland and open space provide more in revenue to the county than they demaM in service costs. . Commercial and mdustriafland also put more into county coffers than me.y ~e out. . Residential land, on the other hand. incurs higher service rosts than it provides in revenue. "Conventional ",isdorn holds that residential groll.th is goo.:! for the Ioca1 tax base. On this iSsue, the colwemional ....isdom is wrong. While ~dentialland generates more gross ll:venue than agriculruralland and open space, it is a net financial loser for the county. Put another Ilo'aY, residential land mat depleteS the available supply of agnculOJralland and ~ space will result in higher taxes or declining levels ofpubll.C~ices. .