Nathan Edgars II <[email protected]> writes: > On 8/31/2011 8:35 AM, Greg Troxel wrote: >> >> I thought the issue was that there are two distinct concepts: >> >> boundaries, where there is some legal distinction and a precise edge >> >> place names, which have more or less indistinct boundaries. >> >> >> In my area, towns have boundaries, and there are village centers that >> have names like "West Acton" which have as far as I know no actual >> boundaries and no legal standing. > > There's a third possibility - the unincorporated suburb or exurb that > nevertheless has a defined boundary, since it's planned or controlled > by one company. I think Columbia, Maryland is this way; closer to me > is The Villages, a huge retirement community that is its own > Micropolitan Statistical Area (and where our governor goes when he > needs tea bags).
I see your point, but there's a difference between a subdivision built by one company (we have them; they are just very much smaller) and a legal boundary. For ours, 10 years later, there is no real basis for calling it a boundary. But I realize land planning is different out of New England than here. > In New England, don't you have the concept of a 'thickly settled' area > where lower speed limits apply? Could this be used to form boundaries > of village centers? We do (I think Massachusetts only), but it's only about (unposted) speed limits, and I don't think it has anything to do with people's notions about villages - just about fighting tickets :-). It is defined (MGL 90-1) as "territory contiguous to any way where the dwelling houses are situated at such distances as will average less than two hundred feet between them for a distance of a quarter of a mile or over". One certainly could draw polygons around village centers, stopping where the landuse becomes residential vs village shopping. But that's about landuse, not about a boundary. One could also try to tile a town with polygons that try to capture the notion of "do you live in West Acton or South Acton". But that's like asking if Acton is a suburb of Boston or Worcester, not about which which county it is in - so I don't think it makes sense to call that a boundary. It's not like there are rules that apply in one such village center and not the other, or taxes, or different representatives.
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