I was fascinated to read a recent article about local property tax yields in US cities.

Conventional wisdom has been that an up-market shopping mall is just the job to prop up the local property tax base.

However, when Sarasota County in Floria looked at the property tax revenue from each acre (0.4 hectares) of area, they found surprising results.

Residential property inside municipalities generated revenues of around $8200/acre for single family houses in one city.

However, very large stand-alone big-box stores produced much the same - maybe $8400/acre, probably because of the size of the car parks!

Upscale shopping malls with quality shops were good, at $22,000/acre.

However, a high-rise mixed use development occupying 0.75 of an acre was by far the best revenue generator, at $800,000/acre.

Even blocks of up to 7 stories generate $560,000, and up to 3 stories (shops with residential development on top) $70,000 - more than 3 times the revenue of the best shopping mall and 9 times the classic Wal-Mart supermarket.

Showing that in-town development - the classic transit-oriented development - is better for tax revenues than suburban sprawl. It's better for many other reasons too!

The full article (and some useful links) can be found in the Citiwire web-site. Authors are Peter Katz, Director Smart Growth and Urban Planning for Sarasota County, and Mary Newsome, associate editor and opinion writer at the Charlotte Observer.