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The United States is projected to add more than 130 million people by the year 2050, and much of this population increase will probably occur in metropolitan regions. A small number of metropolitan counties have adopted green belt strategies in an attempt to curb sprawling urban, suburban, and rural residential development in their hinterlands. These counties are using urban growth boundaries, low-density agricultural zoning, and the purchase of development rights to farmland to create and maintain green belts. The performance of green belts as a growth management tool in six counties is mixed. There has been notable success in the amount of farmland preserved in green belts compared with farmland developed. But in one-half of the counties, rates of population growth have exceeded the national average, and housing has become much less affordable than the national average. Still, the fiscal condition of these counties is strong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forests and forestry have played an important role in the implementation of green belts. They offer important lessons for green belt planning reform. Experiences have been gained with multi-stakeholder approaches and overcoming stakeholder resistance to open space allocation. Forestry near towns has had to balance the interests of different levels of government, crucial in a time of deregulation and decentralization. Integrative approaches such as urban forestry and community forestry contribute to green space planning beyond the urban-rural divide. Finally, urban forests and community forests are multifunctional landscapes, where 'forest' in a judicial sense is only one element. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates around the purpose of green belts arise regularly in England. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this debate by examining the way in which pressures to review green belt policy have mounted at the local level. The paper evaluates the way that planning policy in the Cambridge sub-region has shifted in emphasis to reflect changing national directives and in response to localized growth pressures. Focusing upon the University of Cambridge's proposed urban extension, the paper demonstrates the way that this key stakeholder's needs have taken precedence, outweighing green belt designation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green belts have been a part of the planning landscape for much of the 20th century, yet they have come under attack in recent years. The objective of this article is to inform the future of the green belt concept internationally and in the UK. We first examine recent policy changes in the UK, showing how green belts are being conceived more broadly to include the concept of green infrastructure. We then focus on Canadian green belts, and in particular that of Toronto, which exemplifies some of the challenges with integrating green belts and green infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green belts test the capacity of the planning system to reconcile competing demands on the sustainable use of land. In 2002, in response to strong community pressure and against the wishes of the planning authority, the Scottish Executive approved a green belt around St. Andrews. This has yet to be designated, reflecting the challenges facing the local planning authority. The paper examines the St. Andrews case through a pragmatist framework to assess whether this instrument of governance can be effectively reconciled with community-led initiatives for protecting the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green belt idea is being questioned as an effective way of managing the protection and development of urban fringe areas, and a new concept—green infrastructure (GI)—is being proposed as a better way to plan and manage these spaces. GI is claimed to allow for more sophisticated and dynamic understandings of such spaces and to enable the identification and quantification of formerly under-appreciated assets of the urban fringe, including newly identified economic benefits. The rapid evolution in England of regional and sub-regional 'soft governance' bodies that prioritize economic development provides fertile territory for the claims for GI to be promoted. We track the progress of the new discourse around GI in two northern regions in relation to emerging strategies for spatial and economic development planning. We conclude that the policy purchase of the greenbelt is being challenged by the 'upstart' GI policy and we explore some implications of the evolving policy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenbelts have been widely applied to contain urban growth, provide recreational opportunities, and improve the quality of life. Since 2005, the Province of Ontario, Canada has established a greenbelt in response to rapid urban growth threatening agricultural lands and natural heritage. This research paper assesses Ontario's greenbelt initiative by examining four factors identified by previous studies as contributors to successful applications of greenbelt policies. Factors examined include: political will, pubic support, greenbelt planning, and enabling legislation. The paper points to Ontario's greenbelt strengths and challenges, and provides policy recommendations that may contribute to successful greenbelt applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the evolution of the green-belt policy in Great Britain and its implication for urban spatial management. A green-belt is an area of land set aside during the development of a city or town. The concept started in the 1940s as a tool for urban containment and as part of the plan to keep residents and industries from congested areas. It was intended to prevent urban sprawl, preserve landscape settings in cities and provide land for recreation.

The article discusses the debates on whether rural-urban fringe may or may not be subject to Green Belt policy in Great Britain. These debates in the country illustrate the types of questions that occupy policy makers across the world, particularly on how to plan or manage urban hinterlands in the future. Also, it has been acknowledged that planning will play an important role in some part of fringe management.

Reports the discovery of a source for that most famous of British planning concepts, the Green Belt, or the physical separation of town and country by a building free zone, usually encircling the town.