Ian McGregor is a Concord resident and member of the local Strong Towns Conversation group.

In a recent “From the Mayor’s desk” letter, Mayor Byron Champlin expressed the need for a more diversified tax base for our city and a desire for public investment to redevelop the Steeplegate Mall property. He expressed concern over the current top three taxpayers, all utility companies, each paying more than twice what the next closest taxpayer is putting into city coffers. But that does not tell the whole story.

It is difficult to compare different taxpayers when there is no common denominator among them. When the size of the land owned by a taxpayer is taken into consideration a more accurate comparison is possible. By comparing property values and size of the property it allows us to see how efficiently different property owners are at generating tax revenue for the city.

I will use my family’s home as an example: We have a $340,000 single-family home on 0.15 acres in the South End. This means that our property generates taxes for the city at a rate of $2.3 million per acre. Now let’s compare that to the top two taxpayers. Unitil Corporation owns roughly 200 acres in Concord valued at $92.4 million. This generates taxes for the city at a rate of $462,000 per acre. Liberty Utilities owns roughly 100 acres in Concord valued at $83.5 million. This generates taxes for the city at a rate of $835,000 per acre. So, the utility companies that pay the most in taxes are not generating tax revenue for the city as efficiently as a suburban single-family home. It is worth mentioning that single-family homes on the edges of cities are a poor use of land and an inefficient way to generate tax revenue for cities.

Focusing on the public/private partnerships the mayor was writing about in his recent letter, i.e. using public funds to assist in redevelopment of the Steeplegate Mall property, Champlin looks at the Steeplegate property. He states the 50 acres Steeplegate Mall sits on, at its peak in 2012, was valued at $65 million, which today would be around $95.2 million. Meaning, that at its peak the mall was generating taxes for the city at a rate of $1.9 million per acre. Let us compare that land use efficiency to the other publicly funded redevelopment project the mayor discussed, the NH-DES building on S. Main Street. According to the mayor’s letter, the property is currently valued at $7.4 million and sits on 0.78 acres of land, meaning it generates taxes for the city at a rate of $9.5 million per acre, almost 500% better tax-generating efficiency than Steeplegate Mall at its peak.

Looking at another project that received public funds, the Hotel Concord is currently valued at $15.2 million and sits on 0.3 acres of land, or $50.6 million per acre, 2,500% better tax generating efficiency than the mall ever achieved. That is a public/private partnership I can get behind.

Every acre of developed land in Concord requires roads, sewers, drainpipes, and water pipes. So, it is vital that the city encourages efficient land use to best use the infrastructure we already have. This ensures the greatest tax revenue for the least amount of tax expenditure.

I fully support using taxpayer money to redevelop properties, especially when it diversifies our tax base, but only after we do the math. Taxpayers need to see a return on their investment, whether it’s in the form of lower taxes, better services, or more reliable infrastructure. I do not know what the final valuation will be for the redeveloped Steeplegate Mall property, but I hope it is at least as efficient at generating tax revenue for our city as my suburban single-family home. I applaud the City Council for having the foresight to conduct a study that will do the math to determine if the Steeplegate Mall redevelopment should receive taxpayer funding.

If you would like to learn more about land use planning in New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Housing Financing Authority hired land use analytics firm Urban 3 to conduct a statewide land use and value analysis in 2020. The reports and presentations that discuss these land use principles are still available online. I encourage you to seek them out if you are interested.