Research snapshot · Development · 13 September 2026

Growth management across the country: 100 towns on the record, the pace easing

This page is a snapshot, cut 13 September 2026, of a topic that moves. Below is the shape of the movement, read from the towns' own meeting records, and the way to get a view of it that stays current.

Where and how fast a town allows development: growth caps and rate-of-growth ordinances, phasing, service-area boundaries, and the comprehensive-plan work behind them.Our definition of the class.

Snapshot taken 13 September 2026, based on 139 dated municipal records flagged as growth management, spanning 100 municipalities across 23 states. The topic moves; a later cut supersedes this page.

What this page is for one topic at state or national scope, told as a story: how it arrived, the shape of its movement, a dated snapshot of a moving record, and the door to a view of it that stays current. If it does not, write to us; that is what changes the next edition.

Source documents 3 of 4 on this page link straight to the town's own record. The rest are available on request. Ask for access.

The story so far

The record starts in state not recorded, 21 January 2014. Since then 100 municipalities in 23 states have put the topic on a meeting record, at very different speeds: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont hold 65% of the dated events between them.

The last 90 days put 14 meetings on the record, down from 28 in the 90 days before.

It runs through the rooms where budgets and ordinances are made: Planning Board, Town Council and City Council.

The shape of the movement

Dated meetings on the record at this scope, quarter by quarter, and the same 90-day count as a rolling line, whose right-hand point is that number. Counts of documents, never a reading of what they decided.
QuarterMeetingsTownsStates
Sep 2025 to Nov 20251083
Dec 2025 to Feb 2026302511
Mar 2026 to May 2026292310
Jun 2026 to Sep 2026 (current)161310

a rolling 90-day total, so the right-hand point is that same 90-day count. The busiest stretch was Dec 2025 to Feb 2026, with 30 meetings.

Where it is moving23 states

The same topic at different speeds in different states. A state's name opens its own page where one exists.
StateTowns on the recordMeetings, 90 daysLatest
Maine297 ▬ +0.0%2026-08-06
New Hampshire1312026-07-27
Vermont802026-06-15
Massachusetts71 ▼ -50.0%2026-07-20
Washington lighter read412026-08-27
Utah lighter read402026-01-30
New York lighter read31 ▬ +0.0%2026-08-12
California lighter read302026-02-25
Georgia lighter read302026-06-02
Texas lighter read302024-05-14
Oregon lighter read31 new on the record2026-06-22
Colorado lighter read202026-03-17
Florida lighter read21 new on the record2026-07-22
Illinois lighter read202026-02-24
Arizona lighter read202026-01-28

And 8 more states on the record, in an account view.

From the record

The most recent documents behind this page, one per town. Each link opens the town's own file.

27 August 2026 · Spokane County, Washington

the agenda, on the town's own site Agenda — 2026-08-27

12 August 2026 · Lockport, New York

the meeting packet, on the town's own site Meeting packet for 8.12.2026

6 August 2026 · Lincoln, Maine

the meeting packet, on the town's own site Information-Packet-August-IMU-Ordinance-Amendment

3 August 2026 · Brunswick, Maine Town Council

the agenda, on the town's own site Regular Town Council Meeting

Companies on this record302 companies, 104 documents

Named in the same documents that carry this topic, read from the record itself: the firms designing, building and advising the work, each with where the record places them:
AECOMEpping, Jay, Seabrook and 1 more
3M CompanyJay, Yarmouth
Advanced Drainage SystemsJay, Yarmouth
Algonquin Power & UtilitiesJay, Yarmouth
American Water WorksJay, Yarmouth
ArcadisJay, Seabrook
AT&TJay, Yarmouth
GPCOGSaco, Scarborough
LibraryKensington, Northfield
MBTAHudson, Marshfield
NHDESBristol, Epping
NHMALaconia, Rindge
WSDOTLake Stevens, Mount Vernon
ArtascopeYarmouth
AVCOGLivermore Falls
LRPCSanbornton
VLCTFair Haven
36 years of experience in the transportation industryLake Stevens
AES CorporationYarmouth
AG's officeMarshfield
Agency of TransportationWilliamstown
AguirreBristol
AirgasYarmouth
Alejandrina “Ali” GomezMaricopa
Alfond Youth and Community CenterWaterville
AmazonYarmouth
American Tower CorpJay
AppleYarmouth
Area Ambulance ServiceCedar Rapids
Assabet Valley Regional Vocational TechnicalHudson

And 272 more companies.

The documents naming each, and the threads they sit in, are the account view. If one of these is you, those are your projects on the record. Ask and we will show you every one, and the towns around them, as they move.

A snapshot of a moving record

Everything above is frozen at 13 September 2026; the topic is not. 38 more events on this topic carry no usable date and are counted, never dated. The counts follow where we read most: a town or a state absent here was not read at depth, and absence is not evidence the topic is absent there. A lighter-read state is not a ceiling; where you care about a region, pointing the system there is the first thing an account changes. How coverage is built, and its known limits: municipalalpha.com/methodology.

How we can tell you about it ongoing

We track this topic continuously; this page is one cut of it, taken 13 September 2026. An account turns the snapshot into a working view: every town and every document behind these counts, the thread on each matter as it develops, word of new meetings as they land on the record, your own states and topics side by side, and the data itself when you want it in a table. The towns above are the taste; what each is actually deciding, funding or stalling is the read an account carries.

Each state's name above opens its own page. Counts and dates are computed from the documents on the record; the topic and its definition are ours. This page carries no subscriber content.

Growth management, across the country

from the towns' own meeting records

Scope

Across the country

Area

Development

every topic in this area

Towns on the record

100

with a dated document on this topic

States on the record

23

counted from the record

Earliest

21 January 2014

the documents' dates

Meetings, last 90 days

14 against 28 before

dated documents

Snapshot cut

13 September 2026

this page's date

A view that stays current

ask for yours