Renaissance Downtowns USA hired Urban3 to study the potential impact of their proposed small mixed-use development in El Monte, California. The approximately 3 acre site, Area Y, was located near the Metrolink Station. Urban3’s work has shown that incremental investments into productive mixed-use projects make a big difference in terms of productivity. In El Monte, a strong main street was surrounded by less productive big-box sprawl. The Area Y site was nontaxable, and therefore flat in 3D.

Urban3 used comparable existing developments to project the property value based on the plans for a fully built-out Area Y. The dramatic impact of the proposed development is visible in the map below. Because of its nontaxable status, anything built on the Area Y site would increase tax revenue. However, the large purple blocks represent how density and mixed-use developments create clusters of parcels with very high value per acre.