EPS provides rigorous analysis and insightful solutions to address complex challenges in real estate development, land use policy, and local government finance. We are motivated by the role our work can play in shaping places where people live and we strive to create high-quality urban environments that advance the principles of diversity, resiliency, and shared prosperity.
EPS offers a wealth of experience, robust technical expertise, and the ability to offer insightful solutions to address the challenges and opportunities of urban development.
As California's high-speed rail network inches closer to reality, communities along the corridor are racing to answer a key question: how do people get to the station? EPS partnered with the Merced County Association of Governments (MCAG) and VRPA Technologies to help answer that question for Merced County, developing the active transportation component of the Merced Regional Multimodal Access Plan (MRMAP). EPS built a quantitative benefit-cost analysis framework to rank bicycle and pedestrian capital projects, from multi-use paths to separated bike lanes, based on their ability to boost active transportation use, reduce crashes, and cut vehicle emissions, and a companion qualitative framework ensured equity considerations like connectivity to disadvantaged communities weren't left on the cutting room floor. The prioritized projects will feed directly into MCAG's 2030 Regional Transportation Plan and position the agency to compete for federal infrastructure funding.
The MRMAP Study is linked here.
EPS recently partnered with the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law (CLEE) and The Nature Conservancy to study the relative costs to homeowners living in new housing developments across urban vs. ex-urban areas and single-family detached vs. attached housing in California.
The results showed that new single family attached homes (i.e., townhomes) in existing urban areas are roughly 30 percent less expensive in all-in annual home ownership costs than new single family detached homes in ex-urban areas. The study also found that single-family attached homes are roughly 18 percent less expensive than new single family detached homes in existing urban areas.
The analysis considered costs to homebuyers including not just home price but also transportation costs and “carrying” costs like taxes, utilities and insurance. It also compared costs across three geographical regions: Fresno, Palmdale/Lancaster, and Beaumont.
Read the CLEE blog post and access the full report here.
