Use the information in the file on the Blackhawk Ranch Project to prepare forecasts of the property tax generated by the project This will involve creating a spreadsheet with the year-by-year housing construction of each type, the cumulative housing units of each type. over a thirty year period. Use the house values of the plan and a property tax rate one percent (0.01). Use the initial house values throughout the thirty year period. The due date is the end of the semester.

Assignment Two
The School Age Population

Prepare population projections for the age groups of Preschool, K-5th grade, 6th-8th grade, 9th-12th grade and Adult for a thirty year period assuming the Original Plan was implemented. This will involve using a spreadsheet with the year-by-year housing construction of each type, the cumulative housing units of each type. With this information and the demographic ratios for each housing type the population forecasts can be made. The due date is the end of the semester.

Assignment Three
The School System Costs

Prepare projections of school construction and operating costs.

The estimation of school construction costs involves two parts. First one needs the construction costs for a school. In an actual study an analyst would get the data on the size of schools and the construction cost from a school district administration. For this assignment we will use some information from the Economic Practices Manual (EPM). For purposes of the homework we will take the size an elementary school (K-5) to be 200 students and the sizes of a junior highschool (6-8) and highschool (9-12) to be 400 and 500 students, respectively. From the EPM one can can find the amount of space required per student. There are figures in the EPM on construction costs per square foot for different school levels. Of the figures in the EPM use for each school an average cost per square foot that is a reasonable approximation of the average of the different types of space. Multiply the the size of a school times the square feet per student times the construction cost per square foot to get an estimate of the cost of constructing a school. In addition to the costs of constructing the school building there is also the land cost for the school site. Use 5 acres, 10 acres and 15 acres for elementary, junior high, highschools, respectively and a price per acre of $25,000 per acre.

The second part is the projection of the number of schools that need to be built in each year. First determine the number of schools needed by dividing the number of students by the school size and rounding upward. The reason for rounding upward is to avoid any crowding of the schools. Once one has the number of schools required in each year the number to be built in a particular year is the number required minus the number in existence from the previous year. The construction cost in a particular year is the number of schools to built in that year times the construction cost per school.

The operating cost are projected using the school enrollments times the operating costs per student. Use $1200, $1500 and $2000 as the operating costs per year per student for elementary, junior high and highschool, respectively.

Assignment Four
Fire Protection

The Blackhawk Ranch Project houses creates additional responsibilities for the Danville Fire Protection District (DFPD). In order to provide equal fire protection to the Blackhawk Ranch Project and not reduce the fire protection for the other homes in the district there will have to be additional fire stations built (a capital cost) and more firemen hired (an operating cost). The information required to include these costs in the analysis are in the blackhawk.htm file.

Assignment Five
The Water and Sewer District

The Blackhawk Ranch Project will require the local water district, the East Bay Municipal Water District (East Bay MUD), to increase its facilities for water treatment, storage and distribution. There will be capital costs and annual operating costs. The information for including these costs in the analysis are in the blackhawk.htm file. The water district gets substantial fees when a house is first connected to the water system that goes to defray the capital costs imposed by each new house. This is one time fee. The users pay a monthly fee that goes to cover the operating costs.

Likewise the local sewer district, the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District, will incur capital and operating costs in providing sewage services for the Blackhawk Ranch Project. Again the required information is in the blackhawk.htm file.

Assignment Six
Police Protection

The cost of police protection for the Blackhawk Ranch Project can be estimated from the information given for the City of Lafayette given in the blackhawk.htm file.

Assignment Seven
Sales and Miscellaneous Taxes

As a result of the construction of the Blackhawk Ranch Project local governments would get additional taxes besides the property tax, primarily sales tax and a property transfer tax, and other sources of revenue such as parking fines. The information required for estimating these quantities is given in the blackhawk.htm file.