Helping communities understand the long-term financial impacts of development decisions

Community Lifecycle Infrastructure Costing (CLIC) Tool

Financial management, land use planning, and infrastructure planning are connected. Land use is the main catalyst for local government expenditure and revenue generation. Yet communities often focus on the social and environmental considerations of planning decisions – rarely veering into the territory of finance and costing. Local governments in Canada are now faced with a huge infrastructure deficit and the current reactive approach to asset management will no longer be enough. This is where the Community Lifecycle Infrastructure Costing tool (CLIC) comes in.

We collaborated with the British Columbia government, local governments, and professional associations to develop CLIC, an excel-based tool designed to fill the gap that exists with respect to understanding the long-term financial implications of land development decisions. From providing a high level analysis of cost comparisons to informing growth management decisions, CLIC enables a fiscal evaluation of different residential scenarios over a 100 year lifecycle period. CLIC helps communities to proactively understand the impact of development decisions, contributing to fiscal sustainability and community viability in the long term.