Nancy Eaton specializes in regional economic analysis. Her studies of trends in industry sectors, employment, demographics, income, and retail spending, have been incorporated into feasibility studies for infrastructure funding in Chicago, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Burbank, Bellingham, and New Orleans.
Other projects related to infrastructure financing completed by Nancy include studies identifying and evaluating alternative transportation financing techniques. In her study of local governments ranging from Florida and Georgia to Maryland and Oregon, Nancy evaluated financing tools such as a vehicle miles traveled fee, transportation utility fee, adequate public facilities ordinance, transit oriented concurrency management system, transit-oriented development tax exemption, and a transportation system development charge. For Prince George’s County, Nancy conducted a review of transportation project prioritization and land use planning at the county, regional, and state level in the U.S. She spotlighted the review process in Riverside County (CA), the Puget Sound region, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Each level of government used a combination of tools such as construction improvement monitoring, permit tracking, pedestrian/bicycle impact analysis, scoring systems, GIS mapping, cost/benefit analysis, and demographic and employment projections. Nancy’s analysis provided guidance on best practices for coordinating the development review process with local government capital improvement programming.
Nancy is a co-author of Capturing the Value of Transit, a report for the Center for Transit-Oriented Development in which she examined studies of the financial benefits from transit that were capitalized into adjacent property values for urban transit systems in nine U.S. cities.
For the District of Columbia Office of Planning, Nancy prepared a study of the revitalization of urban industrial zones in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Brooklyn. Nancy’s study found that where the protection of industrial space has been a priority, cities have succeeded in maintaining an industrial character while simultaneously attracting other uses (office, R&D, residential, retail) through both new construction and the adaptive reuse of existing industrial structures. Although at times the success in attracting non-industrial uses has created displacement pressure on industrial tenants, the market incentives for industrial land conversion have been somewhat balanced by new trends that are reviving industrial demand. Nancy’s analysis examined trends that have contributed to the growth of small-scale manufacturing such as the declining cost of advanced fabrication tools, the development of maker spaces, and the greater affordability of e-commerce systems.
For the Maryland Stadium Authority, Nancy estimated the economic and fiscal impacts generated by The Show Place Arena and Prince George’s County Equestrian Center located in Upper Marlboro. MSA used this analysis to evaluate the level of investment necessary for major facility improvements. Nancy estimated the annual impacts generated within the Prince George’s County and Maryland economies under existing operations. These impacts included annual spending generated by the facility such as payroll, facility rental, food and beverage sales, as well as spending by event attendees at local businesses such as hotels, restaurants, and retail stores. She prepared a similar analysis of post-renovation impacts as well as estimates of payroll, employment, and spending impacts generated by the construction of renovations. Nancy also estimated the current and future fiscal impacts generated from the net direct spending by facility attendees.
In all of her assignments, Nancy’s work focuses on bringing to clients a high level of detailed research and analysis in order to anticipate future trends and meet project goals. Her skills in demographic, economic and industry analysis provide clients with a practical framework in which to assess planning objectives and implement modifications when indicated.