Application of the Cost-Distance Measures for Designating Zone Boundaries in DIF Zoning

Abstract

The development impact fee (DIF) zoning is used to adequately provide the pre-planned urban infrastructures in those urban and regional sectors where significant urban sprawl has already taken place followed by the rapid population growth. The infrastructure installation fees are levied to those landowners whose properties belong to the DIF zone in which they enjoy the direct benefits that accrue from the installed infrastructures. While the law is deemed to be equitable in that the actual beneficiaries pay for their benefits, it is required to designate the zone boundaries accurately and consistently since they are the very dividers that differentiate the legitimate fee-payers and the free-riders. This study, especially, tries to test a seemingly advanced alternative, so-called the cost-weighted distance measure, as a potential candidate to replace the current air-distance measures to designate the zone boundaries. The statistics indicate that the coefficient of variation for major indices spread from 11.75 to 35.6 in the case of the latter method, it only ranges from 0.21 to 0.76 in the case of the former. The zonal outcomes also show much higher consistency in their shapes. It is hoped, in this context, that the study findings could possibly be adopted in the future research efforts expected soon to amend and improve the current DIF zoning law.