Growth management attitudes and practices in smaller cities

This research is exploratory in nature and intended to identify what smaller cities are managing their growth, what factors influenced that decision, and what technique they are using to manage that growth. The study was done through a self-administered mail survey, sent to cities between 25,000 and 100,000 population in six selected states. The findings of the study concluded that Planning Directors in the cities surveyed are concerned about uncontrolled growth for a variety of reasons. Neither the size of the city nor the distance from a major metropolitan area seemed to significantly affect attitudes about growth management. As expected, faster growing cities were more concerned about controlling growth than cities with declining or stagnant populations. Most cities used conventional methods such as zoning and subdivision regulations to control growth with a minority of communities applying more innovative techniques.