This paper addresses the growing concerns of local governments and residents about the high costs of urban spillover into adjoining rural areas. From a rural agricultural perspective we focus on the loss of productive agricultural land and open space. From a metropolitan core city perspective the focus shifts to the erosion of the city tax base and its fiscal capacity to pay for the associated high costs of neighborhood decline. From a personal and private perspective, however, urban growth creates new opportunities for residential and commercial development. Many sectors of the local economy share in these opportunities, including young families seeking their first single-family residence at a price they can afford. Given the multiplicity of concerns, the proposed solutions for managing urban metropolitan growth are many, but the outcomes are essentially the same: the converting of rural agricultural areas into suburban and open-country settlement continues unabated.