Key Transportation Planning Principles--
Sprawl Stoppers 
  Urban Growth Boundaries 
  Location-efficient Mortgages 
  Impact Fees 
  Property Tax Reform 

Urban Growth Boundaries 

Urban growth boundaries (UGBs) aim to keep growth within a designated area. UGBs have been successfully used in Portland, Oregon, and a number of other communities to halt sprawl and encourage infill development. Typically, the "inner" area is the "urbanizable" section where a city can accommodate its expected growth; the "outer" area is kept rural and is used for farming, forestry, or low-density residential development. 

On-Line Publications: 

"Guides for Sustainable Community Development"
A section of the Transportation, Land Use and Sustainability document from the Florida Center for Community Design + Research discusses how urban growth boundaries work. 

Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs) Resources
Excerpts from How Smart Growth Can Stop Sprawl, by David Bollier are featured on this site. There is also an overview of how UGBs work, and links to communities that have implemented them.

What is an Urban Growth Boundary?
Prepared by Oregon's Department of Land Conservation and Development, this document offers facts about an important land-use planning tool in Oregon's Statewide Planning Program.

Urban Growth Boundary
Portland's Metro government provides extensive information on their urban growth boundary, including reports and reviews of its performance.

The effects of nucleated urban growth patterns on transportation energy consumption
A report by the Department of Civil Engineering at Northwestern University suggests that centralized growth is more energy-efficient than decentralized development. Guidelines for encouraging more energy-efficient land use patterns are presented, and likely obstacles associated with these guidelines are discussed.

"Problems with Sprawl"
Links to several articles on problems of sprawl related to consumption of land, cost to the taxpayer and environment, and societal and public health impacts.

"Chapter 2: Land Use and Transportation"
From a publication titled Energy Wise Options for State and Local Governments, this chapter explains Florida's urban growth boundary mandates. 

"Slow is Beautiful"
Discusses limiting urban growth by putting direct limits on automobile use, such as speed limits. 

Publications: 

The Next American Metropolis, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1993. 
Author Peter Calthorpe, a national leader in innovative planning explains that "urban growth boundaries (UGBs) should be established at the edge of metropolitan regions to provide separation between existing towns and cities. Lands within UGBs should be transit accessible, contiguous to existing development and planned for long-term urbanization."

Worldwatch Paper 38, City Limits: Emerging Constraints on Urban Growth, Kathleen Newland, Worldwatch Institute, Washington, DC, 1980.  
Discusses urban growth boundaries as a means of limiting growth.

Location-Efficient Mortgages 

Location-efficient mortgages (LEMs) is a financing strategy to encourage people to buy homes near transit lines. Whereas traditional mortgage lending rules do not consider the annual costs of commuting and limit their lending rate to the income of the borrower, LEMS factor in the costs of commuting, allowing money saved on transportation to be applied to a higher loan payment. Thus, a borrower purchasing a home in a central location or on a transit line could qualify for a higher mortgage than a commuting borrower.

Links: 

Location Efficient Mortgages Resources
The Sprawlwatch Clearinghouse posts an article that is a description of Location Efficient Mortgages (LEMs). These mortgages provide benefits for those who don't have to commute long distance to their workplace. There are also links here to other sites with information on LEMs.

Location Efficient Mortgage Project
A project designed and implemented by the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago contains a worksheet allowing one to calculate and understand the benefits of a Location-Efficient Mortgage. This site has information for Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well.

Location Efficient Mortgages
The NRDC website offers a good description of Location Efficient Mortgages, including a list of participating LEM lenders.

Smart Commute Mortgage
Fannie Mae provides the financial details of the Smart Commute Mortgage program on its website.

Accessibility vs. Mobility: The Location Efficient Mortgage 
A brief piece from the Florida Sustainable Communities Center that explains LEMs and offers links to more information. 

Impact Fees 

Impact fees are charged to the developers of new developments by communities, in an attempt to recover the costs of extending infrastructure and community services to the new development.

Links: 

Impact Fees
The Municipal Research & Services Center at the University of Washington hosts this site addressing frequently asked questions about impact fees, and provides the text of impact fee ordinances adopted in Washington counties.

Growth Management Toolkit
The Colorado Sprawl Action includes a discussion of impact fees in its toolkit, and provides sources of more information.

Publications: 

Growth Tool Kit: Ensure Transportation Investments Do Not Spur Sprawl
This document from the Center for Best Practices of the National Governors Association profiles impact fees used in Delaware to encourage growth in designated areas.

Property Tax Reform 

Tax reform can provide incentives for infill development and disincentives for keeping valuable infill land vacant. 

"Sprawl can be counteracted by reducing the tax rate applied to building values and increasing the tax rate applied to land values....Thus land owners are motivated to generate income from which to pay the tax." This system spurs development near infrastructure, and the tax rate is lowered on developed property. Pittsburgh has successfully used this taxing method to promote infill development.--“ Property Tax Reform," Rick Rybeck, The Gas Guzzler Campaign Newsletter, February 1996. Available from: The Advocacy Institute, Washington, DC. Phone: (202) 659-8475.

Last updated: April 21, 2003

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