Throughout the United States, the costs of uncontrolled urban growth have fostered the development of growth management plans. Growth management has become an issue of grave concern in the Puget Sound basin, particularly in King County, Washington. The Washington Growth Management Act (GMA) was passed in 1991, mandating the designation of urban growth boundaries and rural areas as a method for controlling urban growth.

A case study of landcover change from 1991 to 1998 in eastern King County was conducted using remote sensing techniques. Results showed that the rate of change in the rural outside the growth boundary was more rapid than within the urban growth area. These results would suggest that the goals of Washington's Growth Management Act are not being met, and that the urban growth boundary is not slowing development in the designated rural area.

The implications of these findings are that the goals of the Washington GMA have not been widely accepted by the public. Without a change in public attitude about the impacts and implications of uncontrolled urban growth, slowing development of resource areas will continue to prove difficult.