Colorado Sprawl Action
Center's
Growth Management Toolkit
Table of Contents | Introduction | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
Planning
Future Growth Areas:
Urban Growth Boundaries and Contiguity
Problem | Solution | Applications
| Internet Resources
Problem
When most people think of sprawl, they think of open spaces and farmland on the edge of town disappearing under cookie cutter development complexes and suburban subdivisions.
Developments in open lands or "greenfields" on the edge of town often have fewer “up-front” costs due to factors such as the differences between municipal and county land use regulations and development requirements and so may be more profitable for the developer.
However, they tend to cost communities more by requiring higher infrastructure costs, stretching public services to or past their limits, increasing traffic and transportation costs, and destroying open space. Patterns of far-flung, leapfrog development often bring higher taxes and a diminished quality of life for existing residents.
Small towns can quickly turn into sprawling expanses of low-density suburbs when municipalities and counties fail to discuss and agree upon community growth boundaries and contiguity requirements. Such agreements help to ensure that communities stay compact and new development is adjacent to existing urbanized areas, in the process preserving outlying open spaces.
Developments far from the town center can diminish community character and identity, take away much-needed resources from the urban core, and often bring traffic and service problems that cost far more than any revenue the new growth generates.
 |
Without growth boundaries sprawling developments consume open space. |
Solution
Urban growth boundaries (UGB’s) and enforceable contiguity requirements are tools local governments can use to outline how far and how fast they are willing to allow themselves to grow. In their simplest explanation, these two tools are enforceable reflections of community-wide agreement over where development should and should not occur over a specified period of time. UGB’s can help communities maintain their character and better control expenditure of their tax dollars. Contiguity requirements ensure that when communities grow, they grow from the center out, and not through a series of “flagpole” annexations and leapfrog developments. As a result, these two land use tools can serve to help communities control their fiscal destinies and maintain unique community characteristics and a high quality of life for their residents.
Some people have concerns regarding the potential effect of UGBs on housing costs. Typically, when housing costs do not rise as a result of growth management or planning where future growth will occur. However, prices may rise when the number of housing units available is restricted in a high demand market. Thus, the distinction between land supply and the number of available units is important. Further, regulations that negatively affect the availability of housing options, such as large lot or single family residential zoning, may increase housing costs.
UGBs should result in the availability of increased housing options and more efficient development due to increased land use planning. In addition to increased housing options, UGBs and contiguity requirements may reduce infrastructure and transportation costs. As a result, overall affordability may be increased.
| "The value of UGBs is not in drawing a fixed boundary per se, but in the pressure it exerts on municipalities to make a direct reckoning of the long-term costs of unplanned sprawl. UGBs virtually force a town to undertake a more sophisticated, long-term structural approach to fostering economic and community vitality -- rather than just letting sprawl happen. UGBs provoke a discussion about other reforms, such as fair housing within a metro region, infrastructure spending, etc." (From Bollier. David, "How Smart Growth Can Stop Sprawl, A Briefing Guide for Funders," Washington, D.C., Essential Books, 1998) |
Applications
Local:
UGB’s are ideally mapped and included as part of a larger, comprehensive community
plan. UGB’s must be enacted by a local government, referred by the local government
to a vote of the people, or placed on the ballot by citizen initiative. As
part of this process, it is essential that conversations take place between
the local government, adjacent jurisdictions, and surrounding counties to
ensure that growth plans do not conflict and that the integrity and spirit
of the UGB will not be compromised (see our “Intergovernmental Agreement”
fact sheet).
A successful UGB will have a number of components. It should not be overly restrictive of growth such that it halts all new development, but rather should allow for healthy and desirable growth within its boundary. Such growth should meet contiguity requirements as well since growth boundaries often contain an adequate supply of land for many years worth of development. There should be limits on how often the UGB can be altered so that the local land use plan has some stability and meaning, but there should also be a timeline by which the boundary can and should be reevaluated and reshaped as the community grows and changes. Finally, a UGB should be coupled with other tools, such as affordable housing solutions and incentives for infill development, to ensure that the community realizes the maximum of benefits of this growth management tool.
| "Many localities, particularly in the West, have successfully used urban growth boundaries, or UGBs, to contain future development, encourage more livable urban spaces and protect farmlands and open space from development." (From Bollier. David, "How Smart Growth Can Stop Sprawl, A Briefing Guide for Funders," Washington, D.C., Essential Books, 1998) |
State:
From a state level perspective, the legislature could enact legislation that
requires fast-growing communities to adopt comprehensive plans that include
UGB’s and contiguity requirements and mandate coordination between jurisdictions’
UGB’s and associated comprehensive plans. The state could also be enormously
helpful in providing financial resources and technical expertise to communities
to assist them with comprehensive planning and the delineation of future growth
areas.
 |
Clearly defined growth boundaries promote more efficient developments and preserve open space and agricultural land. |
Internet Resources
www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/whitepaper.asp
The Sierra Club’s position on growth-details the need for Urban Growth Boundaries
www.sprawlwatch.org/ugb.html
Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse-overview on how on how UGBs work and links to communities
that have used them
www.plannersweb.com/sprawl/solutions_sub_urban.html
Planning Commissioners Journal provides a “Sprawl Resource Guide”-definition
and examples of Urban Growth Boundaries
www.sustainable.doe.gov/transprt/spwlstop.shtml#Urban
Center for Excellence for Sustainable Development-a project of the US Department
of Energy-discussion of UGBs as a solution to sprawl
Table of Contents | Introduction | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
