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Library - we have a small library of books, magazines, CD's, etc. which have been sent to us.

Factory and Site-Built Housing: A Comparative Analysis - a document published by Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH)

PAYING FOR PROSPERITY: IMPACT FEES AND JOB GROWTH
This June 2003 report by Arthur C. Nelson and Mitch Moody addresses the controversy around impact fees by reviewing the academic literature concerning the effect of impact fees on employment and the economy generally. In addition, the report presents a new analysis of the relationship between impact fees and job creation by assessing impact fee and economic data, assembled for the period 1993 to 1999, for the 67 counties of Florida. Overall, the paper finds that:
• Property tax revenues increasingly fail to cover the full costs of the infrastructure needed to serve new development.
• Impact fees, like user fees, offer a more efficient way to pay for infrastructure than general taxes, and ensure benefits to those who pay them. Academic literature suggests that the aggregate benefits of impact fees improve efficiency in the provision of infrastructure.
• Impact fees increase the supply of buildable land.
• Impact fees have complex effects on housing prices.
• Impact fees do not slow job growth.
This paper shows that impact fees are a practical and valuable tool for financing local infrastructure needs and goes on to demonstrate that faced with the growing demand for investment and the public resistance to tax increases, localities in growing regions that institute impact fees may become more prosperous in the long run than communities in such regions that do not have them. The report may be read in full or downloaded from the Brookings website.

REBUILD AMERICA

STUDY PROVES TREES, WHITE ROOFS SAVES ENERGY

From: A newsletter of American Forests' Cool Communities Program, "Cool &Green", Spring 1999

A new Florida Power and Light study documented that homes shaded by trees have lower energy costs. In some cases, homes reduced summer electric bills by nearly a quarter due to tree shade, and nearly a third due to light-colored roofs. In the three-year study conducted for American Forests' Cool Communities program, trees shading the house saved the average homeowner about 10% off summer utility costs. Tree-shaded homes with tile roofs fared better (12% lower bills) than those with non-tile roofs (8% lower). Light roofing materials also reduced utility bills, with white roofs knocking 15% off average summer utility costs. FPL tested 47 commonly used roofing products and found that: Asphalt shingles reflected only 5% to 25% of the sun's heat away from homes; terra-cotta Spanish tiles reflected 25%; peach-colored tiles reflected 56%; and white tiles reflected 73%. In the most extreme cases, the research predicted that replacing the darkest roof with a white one of the same type would slash summer cooling bills by 32%.

For cooling a South Florida home, the best place to plant trees is in a band to the southeast and southwest of the home, from 5 degrees through 110 degrees to the east and west of due south. Plant short trees nearest the home to gain benefits. Tall-growing trees should be planted further away.

This study was completed in the Miami-Dade Area. For a copy of the study,"Greening and Growing," call 305-372-6555.

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