The Limits to Growth Management

This paper reviews and critiques the growth management system in Montgomery County, Maryland with the intent of finding generalizable lessons. An overview of the twenty year old system is followed by an analysis of its consequences and implications. The system fails to provide effective price signals, rather relying on proactive command and control policies from the county government. Moreover the system fails to raise sufficient revenue for new infrastructure. The paper suggests that an alternative, reactive, approach, which links the threads of infrastructure financing and adequate public facilities by replacing quotas with a market based approach of cost-based prices, would be more equitable, efficient, and effective in implementing county goals.