A city shouldn't strive to maximize tax revenue, but they should definitely strive to make sure the revenue is at least a few cents higher than the cost of main

A city shouldn't strive to maximize tax revenue, but they should definitely strive to make sure the revenue is at least a few cents higher than the cost of maintaining the roads, water and sewer hookups, police & fire, et cetera. For many cities it's simply a matter of selling a few parking lots to developers and letting them put up condo complexes. Old timers will scream and yell about the loss of parking, but those condos will mean the water mains get maintained on time.