What is "green belt"

alt. An area of agricultural land around an urban area that is protected from large-scale housing n. An area of agricultural land around an urban area that is protected from large-scale housing

In United Kingdom town planning, the green belt is a policy for controlling urban growth. The idea is for a ring of countryside where urbanisation will be resisted for the foreseeable future, maintaining an area where agriculture, forestry and outdoor leisure can be expected to prevail. The fundamental aim of green belt policy is to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open, and consequently the most important attribute of green belts is their openness.

The Metropolitan Green Belt around London was first proposed by the Greater London Regional Planning Committee in 1935. The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 then allowed local authorities to include green belt proposals in their development plans. In 1955, Minister of Housing Duncan Sandys encouraged local authorities around the country to consider protecting land around their towns and cities by the formal designation of clearly defined green belts.

Green belt policy has been criticised for reducing the amount of land available for building and therefore pushing up house prices, as 70% of the cost of building new houses is the purchase of the land (up from 25% in the late 1950s).

A green belt or greenbelt is a policy and land use designation used in land use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighbouring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges which have a linear character and may run through an urban area instead of around it. In essence, a green belt is an invisible line designating a border around a certain area, preventing development of the area and allowing wildlife to return and be established.

Green belt or greenbelt is an area of protected open space around an urban area.

Green belt may also refer to:

• Greenbelt (Golden Horseshoe), protected area in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada
• Greenbelt (Ottawa), protected area near Ottawa, Canada
• Green belt (United Kingdom), fourteen protected areas in the United Kingdom
  • Metropolitan Green Belt, protected area around London, England, United Kingdom
• Santo Domingo Greenbelt, a greenbelt surrounding the city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
• Staten Island Greenbelt, New York City, New York, U.S.
• Green belt ( Rennes), protected area around Rennes, France

• Greenbelt, Maryland, a city near Washington, D.C., named for its green belt
  • Greenbelt Station, a Washington Metro and MARC train station
  • Greenbelt Historic District
  • Greenbelt Homes, Inc., an historic housing cooperative
  • Greenbelt Park, a national park in Greenbelt

• Green Belt (Pittsburgh), one of the six marked highway road routes of the Pittsburgh/Allegheny County Belt System
• Boise greenbelt, an urban trail system in Boise, Idaho, U.S.

• Bering Sea Greenbelt, the continental shelf break area of the Bering Sea
• European Green Belt, a body of conservationists who seek to preserve the de facto wildlife preserves that developed along the former Iron Curtain
• Green Belt Movement, a grassroots non-governmental organization based in Kenya that focuses on environmental conservation and community development.
• Green Belt of Glory, a set of memorial facilities at the forefront of the battle for Leningrad
• Greenbelt festival, an annual Christian arts festival in England
• Greenbelt (Ayala Center), a large shopping mall in Makati City, Philippines
• Green belt, also known as the Habitable zone, a region of space where an Earth-like planet can maintain liquid water on its surface and Earth-like life.
• Green belt, a rank of achievement in several martial arts systems, most notably Karate, Taekwondo, and Judo
• Six Sigma Green Belt, a certification level of the Six Sigma processes
• Green girdle (or belt), a token in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight