Institutional Responses to Community Growth and Development.

A number of studies have explored the adoption of growth management and conservation policies by local governments. Policy adoption has been attributed to community characteristics (Feiock, 2002) and the local institutional context (Lubell, Feiock and Ramirez, 2005). This paper adds to these structural and institutional explanations the level of controversy over growth and resident mobilization to limit development. A 2005 survey of local governments in Massachusetts is used to collect data on community growth issues. Regression analysis is used to test the extent to which the local institutional context is a mediating factor in mobilization to restrict development and the adoption of growth management policies. The results indicate that the influence of administration/political factors vary depending on the type of policy adopted, suggesting there is variation in distributional benefits and community costs related to different growth management policies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]