Limiting urban sprawl. New Zealand’s Regional Growth Forum has developed a strategy for regional urban containment, matched by urban intensification (Memn et al. (2007) NZ Geogr. 63, 1). Urban containment has been promoted by US state governments since the 1980s; Wassmer (2006) J. Reg. Sci. 46, 1 finds that only statewide growth management programmes, with the stipulation that local plans must coincide with a state plan or with geographically contiguous local plans, have been effective at reducing the square mile size of US urban areas. Nelson et al. (2004) J. Amer. Planning Assoc. 70, 4, 411 surmise that containment shifts development from exurban and rural areas to suburban and urban areas because of containment boundaries.