City-county separation is a form of governance in which rural and urban areas are formally separated. Although these areas were once thought to be distinct because of their diverse sets of values, economies, labour trends, and ways of life, more recently, and in response to regional growth, governments have begun to design institutions that link the city to surrounding rural governments in order to provide greater policy and service continuity to the region. Detailing the development of municipal institutions, the original logic behind the city-county separation, and the eventual shift in institutional and municipal organization, The Boundary Bargain demonstrates that urban and rural areas have always had a reciprocal relationship and that both play an important role in the strength of the national economy and the broader local community. Focusing on three case studies of separated cities and their counties that still retain strict city-county separation – London, Guelph, and Barrie – Zachary Spicer reveals how this policy works, what problems it poses, and examines the best practices for addressing growth, development, and sprawl from a regional perspective. Highlighting the dangers of municipal institutions that are too rigid to modernize, The Boundary Bargain provides a strong historical account of city-county separation that will guide governments from within and beyond Ontario on how to better manage growth.

The boundary bargain : growth, development, and the future of city county separation

Spicer, Zachary

McGill-Queen's studies in urban governance, 4, Montreal, 2016

Canada - English Language, Canada

May 29, 2016

1, PS, 2016

Source title: The Boundary Bargain: Growth, Development, and the Future of City-County Separation (Mcgill-quenn's Studies in Urban Governance)

"The Boundary Bargain: Growth, Development, and the Future of City-County Separation addresses a burgeoning area of study in Canadian local government-growth, development, and sprawl. Specifically, the manuscript examines the role of municipal organization in urban growth and the role of institutions in the city-county separation. Using Ontario as case study, the manuscript highlights the coordination problem posed by this separation. Traditionally, the two areas have been seen as distinct with different sets of values, economies, labour trends, and ways of life. Despite these cultural and geographic divergences, rural and urban have always had a reciprocal relationship and both play an important role in the strength of the national economy, trade, commerce, and population growth. This complex inter-connected relationship presents a challenge to policy-makers. In Ontario, more recent structural responses to the divide have tended to view the city and its rural periphery as part of a common political unit, if not also a sociological and economic one. In the past when an urban area of a county was declared a city it was politically separated from its surrounding county thereby severing any institutional linkages the two once shared. More recently responses to regional growth began to see urban and rural as connected and have since designed institutions that linked the two in order to provide greater policy and service continuity. The Boundary Bargain details this shift in institutional thinking and municipal organization while examining best practices for addressing growth and development from a regional perspective."-- Provided by publisher

2024-07-01