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Consultants say Schenectady parks generate about $15 million a year in economic value
Summary
Saratoga Associates presented a City Parks Economic Impact Report estimating roughly $15 million annually in combined benefits from Schenectady parks, citing property value effects, stormwater savings and visitor spending based on cellphone data and modeling.
Saratoga Associates consultants presented the City Parks Economic Impact Report at the April 7 Schenectady City Council meeting, saying the parks system delivers almost $15 million in annual economic value to the city.
Consultant Mr. McCarthy and colleague Jackson Losarco told the council the study measured four buckets of impact: equity of park access across neighborhoods, environmental benefits (including stormwater savings), property value effects and consumer surplus from visits. “There’s almost 15,000,000 each year in impact that these parks provide,” McCarthy said during the presentation.
The report finds more than $500,000 in annual stormwater savings, nearly $700,000 in additional tax revenue tied to property-value effects, and substantial visitor spending captured through cellphone-location data and an Army Corps of Engineers valuation method. Consultants said they used anonymized third-party mobile-location data (placer.ai) and followed methods similar to a Parks & Trails New York study to estimate where visitors came from and what they spent while visiting.
Consultants emphasized distributional benefits, saying Schenectady’s parks are more equitably distributed across income and racial groups than some peer cities. They also noted operational and maintenance costs were included in the input-output modeling but did not present a single net fiscal-return figure beyond the headline economic-impact estimate.
Council members asked about data sources and methodology. McCarthy said the cellphone-derived visit counts come from an anonymized vendor and were cross-checked with local park operator data and prior studies. When asked whether the analysis accounted for reductions tied to deferred maintenance, the presenters said operations and maintenance, replacement and new-construction costs were factored into their calculations.
The presentation concluded with an offer to provide underlying spreadsheets and a more detailed methodology to council members and staff.
Ending: City staff and council members can request the study appendices and the consultant said the team would make their underlying data files available for follow-up questions and deeper review.
