A key consideration in the City’s decision-making process for the Baylands is to understand the potential implications of development on the fiscal health of the City of Brisbane. Specifically, will the development generate more revenue to the City of Brisbane’s General Fund than it will cost the City to provide services and maintain public facilities and infrastructure? Or will the costs of providing city services and facilities exceed project-generated revenues? The city hired an independent consultant, Keyser Marston Associates (KMA) to address this issue, which may be viewed in their March 2016 Fiscal Impact Assessment. KMA presented to the Planning Commission at the April 14, 2016 meeting. The agenda report and presentation may be viewed on the meeting page.
During the course of the Baylands public hearings, the City Council requested further information regarding various financing tools that might be available for funding infrastructure improvements, as well as to fund the costs of providing public services and/or the operations and maintenance of public infrastructure/facilities on an ongoing basis. KMA provided a summary of various mechanisms (view report here) and was presented to Council at the April 6, 2017 meeting. At the Council meeting on March 22, 2018, Keyser Marsten presented their study on the financial implications to the City resulting from potential development scenarios for the Baylands assuming varying amounts of residential and commercial development.