The City of Fort Worth has been working to fund and build a $2 billion, 10-year transportation improvement plan. Part of the financing for it, involving developer-paid impact fees, met with significant opposition. To address industry concerns, the City and Chamber of Commerce jointly funded a study to compare the costs of development in Fort Worth to other cities, assess the economic benefits of planned improvements, and identify options for closing the funding gap.
The study released in June 2009 was conducted by Willdan Financial Services (with Spencer, ANA and Kimley-Horn). The report brought detailed economic impact analysis to assist policy makers. It made extensive use of the TREDIS transportation economic impact model to calculate the expected net impacts to the local economy of various policy elements -- including impact fees, construction spending, and long-term benefits of planned transportation improvements.