Coordination of Water and Sewer Extension Policy with Land Use Planning: Key Factors Influencing the State of Practice

ABSTRACT:

City planners have argued for over 20 years that water and sewer extension decisions should be coordinated with comprehensive land use and growth management plans. It is shown that a modicum of coordination, in fact, is occurring among utilities in nine southeastern states. Key factors promoting coordination include rapid population growth, a highly educated utility director, and adoption of sophisticated internal capital programming techniques. Those findings suggest that state capacity-building programs designed to improve the effectiveness of utility leadership and operations will help foster increased coordination of utility investments with community land use and growth management planning. It is found, however, that the use of special districts to provide utility services tends to stifle coordination. That finding suggests that states should take steps to discourage the use of special districts to provide services, such as water and sewerage, that strongly affect population distribution and whose provision therefore should be closely coordinated with community growth management policies.