The points have nothing to do with either the Legislature or UND, and they were buried in a long Q&A.
So for Grand Forks residents, it would have been easy to miss North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum's recent comments about downtowns and development.
This editorial will help make sure that doesn't happen. Clearly, Burgum believes healthy downtowns matter, and that they matters for reasons beyond the standard line, "downtown is the heart of the city."
In Burgum's eyes, a healthy downtown and the policies that foster it are signs of a fiscally responsible city, too.
Grand Forks should consider Burgum's view. What will Grand Forks look like in 2030 and 2040? That depends on the city's decisions over the next few years-and that's where Burgum's ideas come in.
ADVERTISEMENT
Burgum's theme is this: For cities, brownfield development is a whole lot more cost-efficient than greenfield development. That's because compact cities save on the cost of not only new infrastructure, but also new staffing-new fire stations, more police officers to service newly developed outlying areas and the like.
Or as Burgum put it, "In North Dakota, some cities are borrowing money and then with that borrowed money, putting in new infrastructure on the edge.
"They're doing this because it is growth, but I think the numbers will show this is an insolvent way to grow cities."
▇ Davies High School as cautionary tale. First, consider the railroad era, where private investment via track- and station-building preceded most government services.
"Now, we get Fargo, where my daughter went to Davies High School," Burgum continued.
"You build a $53 million high school without a vote two miles out of town. ... You've added six square miles to town, so you need a new fire station ($7 million), a fire-station staff of 21 people and a $750,000 truck. And 24 new police cars.
"We have 45 more city employees plus their pensions. The whole thing opens, and you didn't see a dime of private capital."
That's the wrong way to develop, Burgum said. But it's useful as a contrast with the right way, which includes Renaissance zones, tax increment financing and other tools to incent private developers to use existing infrastructure.
ADVERTISEMENT
"A Renaissance zone is incentive, but it's private capital," Burgum said.
"It occurs only if a private investor does a private project. ... (Likewise,) if a TIF is used to encourage a big-box retailer to come to new infrastructure on the edge at the defeat of downtown businesses, it's not a good thing.
"As a general rule, if you have an incentive that drives private capital toward existing infrastructure, that produces a very positive ROI for all taxpayers," Burgum said.
"It's private paying for public, in the right order, as opposed to the other way around."
Grand Forks should remember those words, as the city develops its own policies to maximize civic health and taxpayers' ROI.
-- Tom Dennis for the Herald
