The University of Texas at Austin

State Growth Management and Open Space Preservation Policies

Managing urban sprawl and protecting open space have become public policy issues of increasing concern during the last decade. Even though land use management is principally a responsibility of local governments acting under authority established by state laws and programs, the U.S. Congress is interested in understanding the ways in which federal actions affect these state and local efforts. This report, prepared for the Congressional Research Service, identifies and characterizes state initiatives directly related to growth management and open space preservation that were enacted, adopted, or undertaken in some other way since 1990. These include laws passed by state legislatures (including significant amendments to existing laws), voter initiatives, programs initiated without explicit enabling legislation, and executive orders. Included in this review of state laws is consideration of the many growth management issues, as defined by the research team, and identification of the approaches employed by state governments to address each issue.

Ordering Information

We are working to digitize all of our archived publications and are no longer offering hard copy publications for sale. Digital and hard copies of our publications can be found at The University of Texas at Austin Library site.

Selected Publications: By Title | By Subject | By Author | By Series | By Year