The Expansion Topic

Living in Europe....gives me a unique prospective on things.

This week....there was a story out of the UK on city and town expansion.....and how fights are developing all over the UK between counties and city governments.

There's a rule in the UK...as a city, you can't expand out beyond the city limits....unless the county council gives you permission.  The city limits are usually defined and have been in place not just for years, but for decades.

So some cities and villages have reached a point where they really need to add suburbs (fresh new housing).  They've used every inch of city property, and it's time to expand out beyond the limits.  Well....the county governments aren't cooperating.  They've said a number of things which equate to limiting encroachment onto the rural regions.  What is farm property.....is going to stay farm property.

Naturally, you can guess the reaction.

This whole discussion is heading toward the Parliament and big-name political figures in the UK.  Most generally agree that city and village expansion is a natural thing.....it'll happen as necessary.  The political figures in the county governments aren't exactly agreeable to this.  And it's bound to generate a fair amount of tension over the next decade.

What you tend to learn after a while....is that most European cities and villages (not just the UK).....are fairly defined, and don't usually expand.  When you look over at Wiesbaden.....the city is iron-clad defined.  If you want new housing......it's mostly a situation where you buy a property with a house already on it, and do something creative with the backyard or you tear down the house and put up a two or three family house instead.

You can't walk out to the last ten feet of the city limits, and fix up the rule to expand another thousand feet onto the city.  It just won't happen.

For an American, it's an odd change.  Most US communities just accept expansion, period.  There's no real plan or vision....you just add and grin as you pass the expansion.  For some reasons, Europeans are picky about this.  A city is defined, for better or worse.