Posted 8/8/01 Empty land doesnít require services To the editor: During a recent meeting of the U of M Land Use Research Project at Fish Lake Park, a participant stated that Fish Lake Township needed more development, citing as example a vacant piece of land in the township that had been paying only $10 in taxes now had seven houses that now were generating a large amount of taxes. The idea that development is a financial benefit to communities is a falsehood perpetuated by the pro-development crowd contrary to the fact that development is a net liability to the taxpayer. In this specific example, that vacant property even though it generated $10 in taxes, probably did not require any tax-supported services. Two separate studies* in eastern Minnesota counties have shown that an average piece of vacant property that generates $10 in taxes required less than $4 in tax-supported services. Assuming that those seven houses paid $10,000 in taxes, the same study indicated that the average amount of services consumed by those houses cost the taxpayers around $11,000. These studies just confirm common sense; since vacant land does not have children in school, does not require roads, police protection, etc. Developers are extremely vocal about their right to develop property, but they are silent about the fact that their right obligates all the taxpayers to subsidize this right. In other words ìDeveloperís Rights - Taxpayers Responsibilities.î Wayne Buisman Harris *Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture Costs of Public Service Study 1999, Farmland and the Tax Bill: The Cost of Community Services in Three Minnesota Cities, American Farmland Trust 1994. ©Post Review