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Techniques For Mitigating Urban Sprawl |
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| Facility Adequacy, Timing, and Planning - Facility Adequacy |
| Adequate Public Facility (PF) Standards/Requirements |
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APF requirements are formal mechanisms used to enforce one of the most fundamental tenets of land use planning - that development should not be permitted where it cannot be adequately accommodated by critical public facilities and services (i.e., minimum required levels of service for water, sewer, drainage, and traffic flow). From Florida to Washington State, APF standards are increasingly used to ensure that urban growth does not overburden municipal facilities and reduce current service. APF ordinances encourage infill development, facilitate municipal service delivery, and direct development toward facility-rich areas. Case/Example: APF Requirements of Florida. Source/Reference: NACo, JCSC, and SGN, 2001, pp. 30-31.
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In Texas, the effectiveness of using APF standards to control sprawl can be somewhat limited by the possibility for the creation of municipal utility districts (MUDs). A MUD is a political subdivision of the State of Texas authorized to provide water, sewage, drainage and other services within the MUD boundaries. A MUD has authority to tax, borrow, and issue bonds. Developers may petition the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to create a MUD within a city’s limits and within its ETJ. A city’s ability to object is severely limited by statute. See Article XIV, Section 59 of the Texas Constitution, http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/txconst/sections/cn001600-005900.html, Chapter 54 of the Texas Water Code,
http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/wa.toc.htm and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality website,
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/permitting/waste_permits/waste_planning/wp_district.html
In Texas, there are also requirements for the provision of full municipal services to newly annexed areas that may restrict the ability to use APF standards to guide growth. Texas Local Government Code ?43.056, Texas Legislature Online,
http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/LG/content/htm/lg.002.00.000043.00.htm#43.056.00(last visited 8/3/07). If the annexed area had a lower level of services and infrastructure than the level provided within the corporate boundaries of the municipality before annexation, a service plan must provide the annexed area with a level of services and infrastructure comparable to the level available in other parts of the municipality with topography, land use, and population density similar to those reasonably contemplated or projected in the area. Id.
If, however, an APFO is adopted with the intent to ensure that the City/County capital improvement program and budget is keeping up with projected growth needs; to ensure capacity expansions and extension of public infrastructure is being made available as demand occurs; and to ensure extensions are being made only in “desired development zones,” then the APFO may well facilitate efforts to curb sprawl development patterns.
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Steven H. Ott and Dustin C. Read. 2006. The Effect of Growth Management Strategies: Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances and Impact Fees: A Review of Existing Research, A Center for Real Estate at UNC Charlotte Working Paper, January. Working paper reviews and asseses the empirical and theoretical work to date on positive and negative impacts of APFOs and Impact Fees.
The Effect of Growth Management Strategies — “Intense residential development has encouraged communities across the country to implement various growth management strategies. Adequate public facilities ordinances (APFOs) and impact fees have emerged as two of the main techniques designed to fund new infrastructure and control the timing and amount of new construction. These regulations and fees are enacted in an attempt to ensure needed public services are in place or funded before new development is allowed to move forward.”
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Envision Central Texas  6800 Burleson Road, Building 310, Suite 165 Austin, TX 78744 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 17848 Austin, TX 78760-7848 |
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