LOCAL GOVERNMENT
ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO URBAN PROBLEMS:
LOCAL AND AREA-WIDE1
The rapid and often complex com-
munity changes taking place today, par-
ticularly in metropolitan areas, have
made it increasingly difficult to provide
urban services on a timely and adequate
basis. To resolve urban problems, many
states are today carefully reexamining
their traditional concepts of local gov-
ernmental roles and urban service
responsibilities. In numerous instances,
many are also exploring new concepts of
local government and new approaches
to the problem of defining urban service
roles and jurisdictions.
Numerous alternative approaches to
urban problems have been proposed.
Many are confusingly similar in termi-
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nology or impact; many others are
closely interrelated or focus on the same
problems. One approach to understand-
ing each of the alternatives is that of
defining each proposal in terms of its
relationship to the existing local govern-
mental process. Specifically, each can
be evaluated on the basis of what local
or urban problem it is designed to re-
solve and what its basic impact on the
existing system might be: that is,
whether it utilizes and strengthens exist-
ing local governmental units and tradi-
tional techniques of change or whether
it modifies or otherwise substantially
changes existing patterns of local service
roles and responsibilities.
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THE "LOCAL" URBAN SETTING:
COUNTY-MUNICIPAL ROLES AND RELATIONSHIPS
I. Techniques of Geographic Change.
Many of the continuing problems cre-
ated by recent urban growth arise from
the fact that the boundaries of existing
local governments, particularly those of
municipalities, no longer fully corre-
spond to the boundaries of the urban
community. This discrepancy between
community and governmental bound-
aries in turn can create inadequate or
1 This paper is the one referred to as Meth-
ods of Providing for Local Government of
Metropolitan Areas in note 241 on page 246
of the report of the constitutional con-
vention commission (1967). It was jointly
prepared for the Commission by Jean E.
Spencer and John C. Brooks. Miss Spencer
is Assistant Director, Governor's Task Force
on Modern Management; B.A., 1955, and
M.A., 1961, University of Maryland; Ph.D.,
1965, University of Maryland. Mr. Brooks is
Executive Director, Maryland Constitutional
Convention Commission; A.B., 1959, Univer-
sity of North Carolina; J.D., 1962, University
of Chicago; member of the North Carolina
Bar.
248
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disrupted service jurisdictions, duplica-
tion or overlapping of local effort,
competition among local units for au-
thority and resources, and inadequate
governmental services and facilities in
particular areas.
Techniques for geographic or bound-
ary change have traditionally been relied
upon to resolve major community-
governmental discrepancies. Such tech-
niques include incorporation, annexa-
tion, extraterritorial jurisdiction, and
unit merger or consolidation.
1NCORPORATION
Incorporation is the traditional
method by which new urban communi-
ties, as they emerge, can be governmen-
tally recognized and provided for. In
Maryland, the question of whether a
new community should be incorporated
requires, by law, the approval both of
those residing in the new community and
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