Growth Management

Growth management is the set of policies governments use to shape where, when, and how a community grows. Tools include urban growth boundaries, limits on development pace, requirements that services be available, and rules for annexing land. Cities, counties, and states use them, sometimes together, to balance development with services and open land.

People usually ask how communities control sprawl, what annexation and incorporation mean, and who decides where city boundaries lie. They also ask how growth policies affect housing costs, farmland, traffic, and taxes, and how supporters and critics of limits on development weigh protecting existing neighborhoods against providing room for more people.