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Legislation (continued from page 1) impact fees must be "directly related" to proposed develop- ment and used only to pay for the "capital facilities" required to serve that development. In the past, local governments did not have the benefit of the guidelines provided in the leg- islation and were left in the murkier situation of depending on interpretations of somewhat contradictory state and federal court cases. Finally, in designing fee sys- tems, BBC's clients always have to face the question of what to include or exclude in fee calcu- lations. The standards pro- vided in the legislation, particularly the requirement that capital improvements have a useful life of five years or more, will aid local govern- ments in making this distinc- tion. So what does Senate Bill 15 mean for Colorado municipali- ties? For cities and towns with fees designed according to fed- eral standards (the practice in BBC's studies), it means cer- tainty, clarity, and specific requirements for impact fee design. Tom Pippin, Ford Frick andJim Carpenter design impact fees for local govern- ments in Colorado and throughout the Rocky Moun- tain West. In 2002, BBC con- ducted impact fee studies in Bennett, Carbondale, Evans, Timnath and Strasburg, Col- orado, as well as Chandler, Arizona. Tourists (continued from page 1) Going -to- the -Sun Road; carry on as in the past by fixing things as needed; or doing something in between that allows visitor use and road rehabilitation to coex- ist. BBC interpreted data from a previous survey of park visitors to answer two important ques- tions: how much might each alternative discourage visitor use? And, how much visitor spending would be lost to busi- nesses in the surrounding com- munities? After estimating changes in the number of visi- tors and the amount of total visi- tor spending, an economic impact model was developed to calculate the potential total "hit" to the region in terms of jobs and income. While tourism - related busi- nesses might see fewer sales dur- ing rehabilitation, local construction businesses and workers could benefit from the project. BBC estimated the local benefits of construction spend- BBC VIEWPOINT • January 2003 • BBC Redearch & Condulting Page 3 Wanted: New (Private Sector) Customers Question: What do you do when the only customer you've had for the last 40 years starts talking about cutting back its spending? Answer: Get more cus- tomers, and soon/ Since the 1960s, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been the only "customer" for most of the nation's Public Housing Authorities (PHAs). Over 4,500 PHAs in big cities and rural areas across America administer traditional public housing and the Section 8 rental assistance program for very low - income households, including senior citizens and persons with disabilities. In return, HUD provides PHAs with direct pay- ments for both operations and capital improvements to the public housing stock. Given Federal budget priorities, HUD payments to PHAs have been flat or declining for years with no improvement expected any- time soon. Meanwhile, changes in the Federal government have placed more responsibility for housing and community development onto the shoulders of local gov- ernment. With tight budgets of their own, municipalities and counties are looking harder for partners to combat homeless- ness, encourage transitional housing, develop the continuum of care for elders, provide sup- portive services for persons with disabilities, promote first time homeownership, and initiate ing and calculated the costs of mitigating strategies with the potential to offset drops in tourism. Finally, BBC examined local economic benchmarks to define the scale and significance of the impacts and evaluate potential environmental justice concerns. The draft Environmental Impact Statement is currently out for public review and com- ment. DougJeavons, Lloyd Levy and other BBC partners and associates are frequently involved in evaluating eco- nomic, demographic, fiscal and environmental justice effects for environmental impact statements and environmental assessments. Other NEPA related assignments in 2002 included studies related to coal - bed methane development in southwestern Colorado, resort development in Wyoming and transportation improvement in western Colorado. urban renewal. Due to their hands -on know- ledge of market conditions and history of working with low - income and special needs house- holds, PHAs would be good partners if only they had the resources. Ironically, both Fed- eral and local fiscal constraints have created an opportunity for PHAs to move beyond their tra- ditional role as conduits for HUD programs and become more entrepreneurial. Some PHAs are leveraging their two biggest assets — undeveloped land and vacant or underutilized public housing developments — into new relationships with private developers. These deals benefit both par- ties. The private sector gets land or buildings, often near revitalized downtowns or bur- geoning entertainment districts, for its own development pro- jects. The PHA gets some much needed, flexible "spend- ing money" it can use to better fulfill its mission of providing affordable housing — often in partnership with its new city or county allies. Working with a team of experts from the Housing Solu- tions network, BBC assisted with two strategic asset man- agement studies for PHAs in 2002. In Birmingham, Alabama and Jackson, Ten- nessee, we helped identify which public housing neighbor- hoods would be the most attrac- i (continued from page 1) that Elaine was likely to be in denial about this pregnancy and puts off prenatal care because she doesn't want to admit to herself that she's pregnant again. As part of our research, we led participants through exercises in which they created ads that might appeal to Elaine and motivate her to seek adequate prenatal care. The accompany- ing graphic was one result of that exercise. Other messages tive for the private sector to redevelop as mixed -use projects offering both market rate and subsidized rental units. While BBC expects the his- torically strong ties between HUD and PHAs to continue, we also look forward to monitor- ing this new entrepreneurial trend and helping PHAs search for new private sector customers and local government partners. that the women thought might be effective included: "It's a lot more expensive to take care of a sick baby than to ensure a healthy one." "Show both a healthy baby and a preemie and show the dif- ference in costs." "She's vulnerable. Use scare tactics. She needs to realize that she's in this situation and shouldn't make it worse." "Tell her that there's help available and give her the specifics." aren't I Heidi Aggeler, Jim Carpenter and Tom Pippin conduct a wide variety of housing market research and HUD -grant related studies for local govern- ments, private developers, PHAs and state housing finance agen- cies from coast to coast. They are currently working on three such Projects for the State of Indiana, City of Bend, Oregon and the City of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The State of Utah will use these ideas, as well as others appealing to different profiles of pregnant women, to develop a social mar- keting campaign with the goal of increasing prenatal care through- out the state. Joni Toenjes andJen Garner lead BBC's social marketing research practice. Using the BBC Behavior Change Model as a framework, they help clients identify what motivates people to make changes in their behav- ior to achieve a social good. co -pay?