Land Use: Great Lakes Sand Dunes & Beaches - Private Lands
Ecosystem Service: Aesthetic/Amenity-Recreation
Regional Value Estimate: $19,437 per acre per year
Confidence Level (in estimated value): Moderate

How was value determined:

1. There are only three counties in the West Michigan policy region with Great Lakes Sand Dune and Beaches: Allegan, Muskegon and Ottawa counties.
2. The regional value for private Great Lakes sand dunes and beaches aesthetic/amenity-recreation in these three counties was transferred from one peer-reviewed hedonic study which looked at the cost of displaced residential development or lost access of coastal amenities in Maryland along the Chesapeake Bay (Parsons and Wu 1991).
3. The hedonic study value was converted to a per acre figure utilizing the added value of a house with coastal frontage and the average lot size (Parsons and Wu 1991). It was annualized using a 7% discount rate, which is the rate required by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for most governmental agencies doing cost/benefit analysis.

Value estimate limitations:

1. There were no studies valuing Great Lakes sand dunes and beaches; the study data relied on here were from the U.S. East Coast.
2. Hedonic values can contain errors from unobserved housing and land variables not included in the original study.
3. Using average lot sizes leads to valuation errors because housing values will be affected differently depending on proximity to the coast (sand dunes and beaches).