Urban Containment in the United States

Download or read book Urban Containment in the United States written by Arthur C. Nelson and published by Amer Planning Assn. This book was released on 2004 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urban containment is most simply expressed as a line on a map separating urban and rural uses. The line may be locally identified as an urban growth boundary, urban service limit, or priority growth area. But the significance of the line resides in the mechanisms implemented to make containment work—from innovative zoning programs to infill and redevelopment, open space conversation, and infrastructure phasing. This report explores urban containment as a framework that regions and communities can use for managing growth. Growth management techniques can be time-related (such as phasing development through infrastructure management), place-related (such as defining the qualities of specific areas), and function-related (such as relating uses and ensuring housing affordability). When urban containment is the framework underlying growth management, it provides growth management with a rationale for phased development, steers the direction and form of development, and identifies central places within the urban fabric. This report reviews the history and central characteristics of urban containment, discusses the authors' evaluation of more than 100 urban containment plans, and presents their four-framework typology. It also offers case studies of each of the four frameworks and summarizes the implications for planners. Includes appendices, as well as a compilation of principal techniques for growth management and the elements of urban containment frameworks.