Shedding Light on the Creeping Costs of Sprawl

Philip Langdon at New Urban News writes:

"(E)ven a top-of-the-line mall pales in comparison to the per-acre revenue obtainable from dense urban development. A 17-story mixed-use building occupying .75 acres on Main Street downtown [Sarasota] generates $1.01 million annually in city and county taxes, according to [Peter] Katz. That building, completed in May 2007, which has retail in its base, several floors of offices, and then condominiums in the upper levels, produces $1.2 million per acre in county property taxes alone. 'It would take about 145 acres of Walmarts - or five of them, to be precise - to equal the contribution of that one downtown building,' says Katz."

Thanks to Renee Brutvan