The federal government describes rural in more than a dozen unique ways, and it is correct each time – depending on the agency. There are 15 federal definitions of the word “rural,” according to a recent Washington Post article. That bests Webster’s New World Collegiate Dictionary by 12. The dictionary, though, does not offer the promise of federal aid.
Post reporter David Fahrenthold points out the U.S. Department of Agriculture alone has 11 definitions of the word, but the agency mentions two federal definitions only apply to Puerto Rico and parts of Hawaii. The U.S. Senate’s proposed Farm Bill attempts to reduce the meaning of rural to no fewer than nine definitions. But, of course, we are talking about the government, so one new meaning of rural will be added in January by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
USDA Economic Research Service staff members analyze these things often. They use counties as standard building blocks for collecting economic data. For these researchers, rural can be defined as: open countryside, towns with fewer than 2,500 people and urban areas with populations up to 50,000.
Yes, it is confusing. So why should you care? The definitions are applied when acquiring federal grants. On the table is a stake in $37 billion in federal money used for rural development. Money for housing, community centers, sewer plants and broadband connections are all part of this funding mix, according to Fahrenthold.
The government’s redundancy and duplication result in extra paperwork and research for small-town managers eager for the development money. It also leads to creative thinking. Fahrenthold mentioned one small town of 20,300 people de-annexed the land on the edge of town that included a charter school. Under one federal definition, the school had to be outside the city limits to qualify for a rural-aid grant.
By the same token, parts of a metropolitan area can be deemed rural. According to the Missouri Census Data Center, 1.3 percent of the population within the Kansas City limits was classified as living in a rural setting, based on 2000 data. It gets better. Based on land area, 43.3 percent of the land area of Kansas City is classified as rural. The independent city of St. Louis is the only recognized county in Missouri classified as 100 percent urban.
Now, putting this in perspective, maybe all those definitions aren’t such a bad idea. If I can’t get a certain rural grant in Blue Springs, maybe I can try in Kansas City. Isn’t Blue Springs in the Kansas City metropolitan statistical area? Oh, it gets so confusing!
—Chris Fennewald, editor for Missouri Farm Bureau in Jefferson City
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
