Urban Service Area

• Author: Alec LeSher
• Pages: 190-193

190 Sustainable Development Code: Climate Change

URBA N SERV ICE AREA

Alec LeSher (author)

Jonathan Rosenbloom & Christopher Duerksen (editors)

INTRODUCTION

An Urban Service A rea (USA) is a dened area in which a municipality

provides access to public services, such as water, sewer, and transit.1 ese

areas are ty pically established in a local government’s comprehensive plan

and implemented in the zoning or other land use codes. Ordinances enforc-

ing USA’s eectively create a legal boundar y, outside of which the local gov-

ernment is not obligated to provide public services and may refuse to do so.

Developers are still permitted to constr uct beyond the boundary, but may be

required to create their own connections to utilities and may also be refused

the right to access those utilities. ese ordinances should be structured in a

way that allow the local government to expand or contract the USA to allow

for more development or to restrain urban sprawl upon specied  ndings.

In addition to establishing the boundary of a USA, these ordinances often

set forth which service s are restricted by the USA. Most commonly, this

includes water, sewer, electrical, and transit services. Some municipalities

also restrict the jurisd iction of the municipal police force to the boundary of

the USA. ese ordinances may set forth the entities responsible for review-

ing the USA, procedures for modifying the USA, and sunset provisions on

the applicability of the USA.

EFFECTS

An USA is a practical w ay of reducing urban sprawl and consequently increas-

ing density by disincentivizing development outside of the USA. Urban

sprawl is the process of a local government expanding into previously unde-

veloped land .2 One of several issues associated with sprawl is t he increased

cost of public services in low-density areas.3 Providing public ser vices such as

water, sanitation, and transit services to larger a reas tends to be more expen-

sive for the municipality and tends to pull resources from the urban core or