San Jose Case Study: The Urban-Growth Boundary

"Part of San Jose's growth was due to an aggressive annexation program that octupled San Jose's land area in twenty years. As a result, the city's population density declined from more than 5,600 people per square mile to less than 3,300... While San Jose might have limited growth within its sphere of influence, it couldn't stop Santa Clara County from growing by nearly half a million people between 1970 and 1990. The Census Bureau says that more than 400,000 of those people moved into the San Jose urbanized area. By coincidence, the Census Bureau's urbanized area is almost exactly the same size as San Jose's sphere of influence. The urbanized area, however, includes a number of cities that had incorporated in the 1950s and 1960s to escape from being annexed by San Jose."