Density Matters: the Effects of Urban Growth Boundaries on Florida Urban Densities
Density Matters: The Effects of Urban Growth Boundaries on Florida Urban Densities
Prepared by
Submitted to ___
Executive Summary
Urban growth boundaries (UGB) are a growth management tool adopted from early English land use traditions to categorize land use. UGB’s are boundaries that clearly delineate the limit of the urban density growth permitted and supported by the issuing municipality. Florida instituted the Growth Management Act in 1985, mandating local comprehensive planning and recommending cities implement urban service areas, motivating many cities to go a step further and clearly outline the limit of growth. This study seeks to identify the effectiveness of UGB’s on compact development in urbanized cities within the state of Florida.
There are 38 cities in Florida with populations greater than 50,000 people, or which are urbanized areas. The study will collect data and organize case studies on eight cities with urban growth boundaries of the 38 possible cities. The data, both through secondary data analysis and survey research, will measure the impact of the urban growth boundary to impact key compact development factors. Since compact development is described as growth up instead of out, indicators of an increase in compact development include use of infrastructure, mass transportation capacity, undeveloped land, building standards, and zoning densities. The surveys will measure the administrative perception of the impact or effectiveness by gauging the same indicators from an administrative point of view.
The collection of data will then be analyzed using SPSS or a similar social science statistical analysis program to determine any significance between the changes among cities. The expected results will outline the cities’ perceptions on the UGB as well as the quantitative changes that occurred over the measured time period. The quasi-experimental time-lapse design faces internal validity issues because of the
Prepared by
Submitted to ___
Executive Summary
Urban growth boundaries (UGB) are a growth management tool adopted from early English land use traditions to categorize land use. UGB’s are boundaries that clearly delineate the limit of the urban density growth permitted and supported by the issuing municipality. Florida instituted the Growth Management Act in 1985, mandating local comprehensive planning and recommending cities implement urban service areas, motivating many cities to go a step further and clearly outline the limit of growth. This study seeks to identify the effectiveness of UGB’s on compact development in urbanized cities within the state of Florida.
There are 38 cities in Florida with populations greater than 50,000 people, or which are urbanized areas. The study will collect data and organize case studies on eight cities with urban growth boundaries of the 38 possible cities. The data, both through secondary data analysis and survey research, will measure the impact of the urban growth boundary to impact key compact development factors. Since compact development is described as growth up instead of out, indicators of an increase in compact development include use of infrastructure, mass transportation capacity, undeveloped land, building standards, and zoning densities. The surveys will measure the administrative perception of the impact or effectiveness by gauging the same indicators from an administrative point of view.
The collection of data will then be analyzed using SPSS or a similar social science statistical analysis program to determine any significance between the changes among cities. The expected results will outline the cities’ perceptions on the UGB as well as the quantitative changes that occurred over the measured time period. The quasi-experimental time-lapse design faces internal validity issues because of the
References: Avin, U. & Bayer, M. (2003) Right-sizing Urban Growth Boundaries. Planning, 69 (2), 22-27. Babbie, E Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.) The Urban Environment Glossary. Washington DC: EPA. Accessed online December 1, 2004: http://www.epa.gov/urban/glossary.htm FEDSTATS Jun, M. (2004) The Effects of Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary on Urban Development Patterns and Commuting. Urban Studies, 41, 1333-1348. Jurie, Jay. (2004) Urban Growth Boundaries and Related Concepts. Power Point Presentation to the Volusia County Smart Growth Implementation Committee, October 11, 2004. Daytona Beach, FL: University of Central Florida. Kelly, Eric D. (1993) Managing Community Growth: Policies, Techniques and Impacts. Westport, CT: Praeger. Knaap, G. and Song, Y. (2004) Measuring Urban Form: Is Portland Winning the War on Sprawl? Journal of the American Planning Association, 70, 210-225. Nelson, AC. (1994) Oregon’s urban growth boundary policy as a landmark planning tool. In C. Abbott, D. Howe, & S. Adler (Eds.), Planning the Oregon way: A twenty-year evaluation (pp. 25-27). Corvallis, OR: OSU Press. Weiss, Carol H. (1998) Evaluation: Methods for Studying Programs and Policies, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.