Settlement areas with clearly defined boundaries limit sprawl and protect habitat corridors and natural resources.

As regions, cities, and towns grow, they tend to expand at their peripheries, generating sprawl, increased traffic, and loss of their unique characteristics, while stretching infrastructure capacity and threatening natural resources.

Consider growth boundaries when planning settlement areas that:

  • Preserve natural resources and sensitive habitats;
  • Incorporate population growth projections;
  • Direct growth to infill, retrofits, and existing transit locations;
  • Allow for adjacent new transit-oriented growth areas; and
  • Establish or preserve plant and animal migration corridors.

​When infill and growth areas within defined boundaries cannot accommodate growth rates, consider planning for separate and distinct but transit-supported settlement areas.