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THE COST OF COMMUNITY SERVICES IN GASTON COUNTY Introduction In counties located near fast-growing urban areas, there is considerable debate over the desirable mix of land uses and the role that local government can and should play in affecting the rate at which new land uses supplant traditional ones. Gaston County is typical of such counties. The continuing economic growth in nearby Charlotte-Mecklenburg has created unprecedented demands for residential and commercial development. On the one hand, this situation has been welcomed by many because it has created significant economic development opportunities for the county's citizens and a significant increase in the county's revenue base. On the other hand, many of the county's citizens worry that the rapid pace of these changes will alter the character of Gaston County—particularly, the county's rural areas—in ways that are undesirable. Moreover, there is concern that the increased local government expenditures on community services needed to accommodate accelerated residential and commercial development may exceed the contribution of that development to the county's revenue base. One important element of public debate over appropriate land use policies is whether or not increased county government expenditures on community services needed to accommodate residential and commercial development exceed the contribution of that development to the county's revenue stream. This report presents the findings of a research project aimed at addressing this specific issue. The research quantifies the contribution to local government revenues of various types of land uses (residential, commercial/industrial,' and agricultural), and the demands on local government financial resources of those same land uses. This "snapshot" of current revenues and expenditures allows an assessment of the costs and benefits of different land uses from the perspective of local government finance. The analysis presented here employs a methodology established by the American Farmland Trust, one that has been used in numerous Cost of Community Services (COCS) studies throughout the U.S. Like those studies, the current research was motivated by two questions: (1) Do the property taxes and other revenues generated by residential land uses 'For simplicity,the term"commercial"will denote both commercial and industrial land uses for the remainder of this report. Likewise,"agricultural"will refer to farm and forest land uses. G-4 Page 244