Trends, motivations, and land use outcomes of municipal annexation: A case of Alberta, Canada

Annexation is the most common form of municipal boundary adjustment in Canada, yet a systematic analysis of annexations is missing from the academic literature. This begs two key questions: Why do Canadian municipalities annex land? What are the land use outcomes of annexation? This qualitative and quantitative case study of Alberta, a Canadian prairie province, reveals that trends in annexation activity, motivations, and land use outcomes are broadly informative, but every instance of annexation is a story of local ambitions and outcomes. Through a series of examples, we illustrate a growth-driven, inherently political and economic process of annexation that is sometimes complex, and one in which the outcomes of annexation may not always match the motivations for it. We find that multiple motivations (that may be intertwined) prompt municipal annexations; furthermore, development in the annexed area occurred at the expense of the non-annexed parts of annexing municipalities, particularly in small towns and villages. This leads us to believe that annexation is perhaps a contributing factor to urban sprawl and land fragmentation. The study calls into question the efficacy of annexation as a policy tool for municipal boundary adjustment or as a substitute for conducting regional planning.