ertebolle t1_itw8kqf wrote on October 26, 2022 at 7:32 PM

Reply to comment by johnsonutah in How can we incentivize real discussions around solutions to home affordability in CT? by otter_spud

This. Very often people have hugely inflated notions of how many new students a new development is likely to bring - my understanding is that relative to the property taxes paid, apartments are often more profitable for towns than single-family homes.

johnsonutah t1_itw9vhq wrote on October 26, 2022 at 7:40 PM

Yup - but on the other hand, if a school system is effectively maxed out as is, and multiple large developments result in a need for a new highschool, new building etc, then there will be a town wide tax increase.

This happened in my town, we needed a new high school and our prop taxes are higher than they were before. I personally don’t care but I can understand the concern when new developments are considered / popping up all over.

I also want to highlight that it’s not just school systems…roadway overhauls, water infrastructure etc matter and are never ever addressed by developers.

kayakyakr t1_itwetr0 wrote on October 26, 2022 at 8:11 PM

Population will increase and someone's going to have to build a new HS. And your increased taxes have now improved your school system, improving services offered by your town. If you look at it that way, it's an upgrade and well worth the price.

But your town could probably also have anticipated the growth and started investing in a larger school or new HS much earlier. Growing up, my town readjusted our HS split before I made it to high school. They launched the new HS by having an all-district 9th grade campus for a few years that funneled into the main campus. As the district population grew, they realigned and made the 9th grade campus a full 4 year HS. This would have been forward thinking and would have had much less an impact than saying, "well, shit, I guess we need a new school now"

johnsonutah t1_itwii9m wrote on October 26, 2022 at 8:34 PM

Bigger school system doesn’t equal better school system

And forward thinking is kind of the point - if we change the paradigm and roll back zoning across the state, it’s pretty hard for towns to plan.

In fact I think we are arguing for the same thing - transparency by developers and the town regarding infrastructure impacts from new developments, alongside tax assessments of the impacts. If high density multi families results in an uptick in school aged population, requiring infra upgrades, requiring higher prop taxes, it seems reasonable for the residents to be informed of that. It’s also equally good to be informed if that won’t happen, because it means tax rates will potentially go down!