Monday's feature in The Washington Post on the ‘flop' of Maryland's smart growth referred to an article published in the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA). Rebecca Lewis, Gerrit-Jan Knaap and Jungyul Sohn's article entitled ‘Managing Growth With Priority Funding Areas: A Good Idea Whose Time Has Yet to Come' was published in volume 75, issue 4, of JAPA and is free to view online.

In 1997, the State of Maryland adopted a bold new approach to growth management based on a novel instrument: priority funding areas (PFAs). PFAs contain growth by directing state spending to areas designated by local governments and reviewed by the state government. Despite widespread acclaim and subsequent imitation, little is known about whether PFAs effectively contain urban growth. The JAPA article evaluates the adoption, implementation, and performance of PFAs in Maryland in order to provide planners and policymakers with insights into their efficacy as instruments for managing growth.

Co-author Gerrit-Jan Knaap of the University of Maryland commented "We think the research is important because the state of Maryland, and its incentive approach to managing urban growth, has been hailed as a model for the rest of the nation. Before other states and local governments adopt similar approaches it is important to know both the strengths and limitations of that approach."

Published by Routledge since 2008, JAPA publishes only peer-reviewed, original research and analysis. It aspires to bring insight to planning the future. For more than 70 years, it has published research, commentaries and book reviews useful to practicing planners, policymakers, scholars, students, and citizens of urban, suburban and rural areas.

Notes to editors:

To read the JAPA article in full for free please visit:
www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=urst~content=a915602672

For more information on JAPA please visit: www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rjpa

To read the article from The Washington Post please visit:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/01/AR200911010247…

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