URBAN GROWTH BOUNDARIES AND URBAN SERVICE AREAS

 

An Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) is a tool that promotes more compact development. It is a line drawn on planning and zoning maps to show where a city expects to grow and it confines development within planned urban areas where basic services such as sewers, water facilities, water protection, police and fire protection are provided. UGB create areas for development and create economic incentives for development.

 

UGB establishment is through an agreement between the city and the council. Normally before drawing the boundary, the city and the county are supposed to make three studies:

 

  1. Population growth projection, housing needs and land needs for residential, commercial, industrial and public spaces and buildings.
  2. Inventory of public facilities, their capacity and projected needs.
  3. Estimate of a twenty-year supply of buildable land but taking into consideration the topography and land needs among others.

 

The city and the county then amend their comprehensive plans and zoning maps to indicate the Urban Growth Boundaries. This followed by an agreement that urban services such as sewer lines and water lines shall not be extended beyond the drawn boundaries. The county implements adequate agricultural zoning on lands out of the UGB to ensure that there is no leapfrog over it.

 

UGB has not been fully adopted in Michigan but has been a great success in Oregon and Colorado among countries.

In 1966 communities Oregon joined together to consider possibilities for future urban growth and they realized that the only way forward was through regional planning. Oregon's statewide planning goals were therefore adopted, mandating the creation of urban growth boundaries in each community in Oregon. UGBs were then created in the early 1970s and it took almost thirteen years for all the UGB goals to be met. By 1997 almost 2 million acres of Oregon’s 28 million acres of privately owned land had been included inside UGBs. Inside the UGB, development occurs at a very high rate as developers recognize that they can meet the market demand.

 

It has been argued that UGB drive the cost of housing up, this however has been proved wrong through studies of 18 communities in Michigan. The Southeast Michigan Council of government’s study showed that the proper use of UGB has lowered the price of new homes by more than $10,000. [1]

 

 

 

 

Reference:

 

  1. Urban growth boundaries: Sprawl guide http://www.plannersweb.com/sprawl/solutions_sub_urban.html
  2. Reason Public Policy Institute http://www.rppi.org/urban/ps263.html#_Toc463845475
  3. Urban Growth Boundary

      http://www.metro-region.org/growth/ugbursa/ugbursa.html

 

  1. Daniels T. and Bowers D. (1997). Holding our land: Protecting Americas Farms and Farmlands. Island Press, Washington D.C.

 


[1] Sierra Club: http://www.sierraclub.org/planet/199909/questions.asp