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30 | P a g e <br />Understanding Little Canada’s Local Economy <br />Methodology and Limitations <br />This report compiles publicly available employment, demographic, land use, retail, and property <br />tax data to provide a consolidated reference document. While care has been taken to ensure <br />consistency and accuracy, several limitations should be noted. <br />This report is intended to establish a consistent analytical baseline. Future editions may refine <br />methodologies as additional data becomes available or as parcel conditions evolve. <br />Employment and Commuting Data <br />Employment, industry, wage band, and commuting data are derived from the U.S. Census <br />Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) dataset. LEHD relies on <br />administrative wage records and applies statistical modeling to protect confidentiality, which can <br />result in rounding and partial suppression of certain records. <br />In particular: <br />• Destination and origin data do not capture 100 percent of workers. <br />• Some workers are categorized in aggregated “other” locations. <br />• Wage bands are limited to broad groupings, with $40,000 representing the highest <br />publicly reported threshold. <br />As a result, figures presented in this report should be interpreted as directional rather than precise <br />to the individual worker or business. <br /> <br />Property Tax and Land Use Data <br />Property tax and parcel data were obtained from Ramsey County’s Open GIS service in Fall <br />2025. Zoning classifications were cross-referenced with Little Canada GIS data provided by <br />Bolton & Menk. <br />To improve the accuracy of per-acre fiscal comparisons, staff undertook normalization <br />procedures for certain parcel types: <br />• Condominium and Common Interest Community (CIC) parcels were aggregated by <br />summing total tax and total acreage to generate representative tax-per-acre figures. <br />• For older plats with substantial shared stormwater infrastructure or common areas that <br />materially influenced development form, staff conducted a plat-by-plat review using City <br />archival filings and recorded plat documents. These records were aligned with GIS parcel <br />data to determine total acreage and total tax associated with the development as a whole. <br />• Normalized tax-per-acre figures were calculated by summing total tax and total acreage, <br />reducing distortion caused by artificially small individual parcels.