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City of Saco - Comprehensive Plan, Fiscal Capacity, and Capital Planning

Saco, Maine, provides a waterfront home to over 21,000 residents. To address the growing needs and wants of their community, the City of Saco enlisted our team to update their Comprehensive Plan and create a fiscal capacity and capital investment plan to figure out how to fund improvements to the community¡¯s amenities.

Our Urban Places team led the update, envisioning Saco as a ¡°community for a lifetime.¡± We worked with the community to establish shared principles for Saco¡¯s future including specific recommendations to advance local policy and infrastructure. Driven by a goal-based analysis, the Comprehensive Plan addresses growth and development issues such as pedestrian and bicycle networks, housing affordability and diversity, and coastal sustainability and resilience.

Next, we used our Financial Analysis and Management Systems (FAMS) model to establish the City¡¯s available funds over the next 10 years, focusing on property tax revenue to support programs and capital expenses. We created different scenarios to see how changes in property tax rates and property values would impact their finances.

In the end, the analysis provided the City with a plan to fund future initiatives and capital projects that will benefit the community for years to come.