Contra Costa Shaping Our Future

Contra Costa County

Contra Costa County, California

April 2002

to

June 2002

Strategic Economics provided on-call assistance to Shaping Our Future, an initiative of Contra Costa County and

its constituent cities to help elected officials and residents make decisions about how to manage growth during

the next 20 years. The project addressed growth-related issues such as using land more efficiently, preserving

the integrity of many existing neighborhoods, reducing traffic congestion in key areas, developing transit strategies

and funding sources, redeveloping business districts that may be under-used or run down, and how and where to

preserve open spaces and hillsides.

Strategic Economics examined population and employment growth trends and projections and reached

conclusions about what growth scenarios were most likely in the future. The firm also gathered information for a

model used to assess infill development potential for different land uses and product types. Strategic Economics

provided economic input information for the model, including hard and soft development costs and revenues by

county sub-area, in order to evaluate the potential for redevelopment in some of the more 'built out' areas of the

county. This model is now used by the project lead – Fregonese Calthorpe – to work with communities facing

similar growth pressures.