The Champaign City Council and Plan Commission discussed a future fiscal impact analysis study in order to better understand the cost of city growth, Tuesday night.

TischlerBise, an economic planning firm, will assist the study.

“This will be a two-phase study in order to analyze varieties of land uses and areas where growth can potentially prosper,” said Carson Bise, president of TischlerBise. “We will focus the analysis of land uses on existing developments in Champaign and we’ll include residential and commercial land. A variety of developments in these categories have been selected.”

Bise’s goal is to inform everybody of the plans for developmental growth in the community.

“Most local governments don’t know the true cost of development decisions in their communities,” Bise said. “They don’t even know if their current land use plans are fiscally sustainable.”

Bise said the objective of the study is to make sure that the community knows which areas are good for development.

“The council had developed action steps showing how they can be more fiscally sustainable associated with community development,” said City Planner Lacey Rains. “The data acquired from this fiscal impact analysis study can be used to understand where a cost effective place to grow would be as well as the characteristics of the new developments.”

As directed by the city council, staff members are working with TischlerBise to determine the costs and revenues associated with development. Also, the results of this analysis will be an important tool in completing the update to the comprehensive plan, which is the document that outlines the goals, objectives, principles and policies for the long-term physical growth of the city.

“After we receive the results of this analysis after the phases are complete, we need to know how to use the information that we receive regarding development,” said At-Large Councilwoman Deborah Feinen. “We can incentivize Curtis Road, which is a piece of land that we have discussed development in for a long time now.”

Bise informed the group that the prototypes from the fiscal impact analysis study will be ready to present to the council after the first of the year.