Growth Boundaries (2019)

This data set contains features representing growth boundaries in the San Francisco Bay Region. The data set was developed by Greenbelt Alliance as part of their open space preservation mission. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) updated the feature set in late 2019 as part of the jurisdiction review process for the BASIS data gathering project. Changes were made to the growth boundaries of the following jurisdictions based on their BASIS feedback: Antioch, Fremont, Livermore, Marin County, Pittsburg, Pleasanton, and San Ramon. The original features were created by referencing the local measures adopted by voters, city councils/boards of supervisors, or both and map images developed by local government. Web links to the measures and images are included in the attribute table. Greenbelt Alliance is responsible for updating the links to that information if their links change or the documents are taken offline. MTC's updates were made to a limited set of features using shapefiles downloaded from jurisdiction websites, hand editing features by referencing map images provided by jurisdictions, and erasing feature areas using base data features where one jurisdiction's growth boundary overlapped another jurisdiction's city limit. The MTC edits were limited, or related, to features receiving comments from jurisdiction reviewers. While commonly known as either Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs) or Urban Limit Lines (ULLs), there are no standard designations so they are referred to by a number of designations in the attribute table (name). A couple of the alternative designations include Rural Urban Boundary and City Centered Corridor. Regardless of the designation used, growth boundaries are intended to control where development should be encouraged and discouraged. In this case, the polygons represent the areas where development should occur, and development outside the boundary is discouraged. Development proposed for areas outside the boundary is usually allowed based on special review and approval processes designated by the adopting jurisdiction. Jurisdictions are not required to adopt growth boundaries so the development restrictions imposed by them only apply to the cities and counties that create them. In the case of growth boundaries adopted by counties, they are usually developed with the consent and agreement of the cities adjacent to the county growth boundary.