70-481: Free Home is an unincorporated community in the eastern part of Cherokee County , Georgia , United States. Centered at the intersection of state highways 20 and 372 , the rural community has seen moderate suburbanization of the area since the late 1990s. It is home to Free Home Elementary School. Free Home is about halfway between Ball Ground to the north and Milton to the south-southeast on Georgia 372 (also called Free Home Highway and Birmingham Highway, for
140-662: A census-designated place (CDP). A CDP is an area defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. It is a populated area that generally includes one officially designated but currently unincorporated community for which the CDP is named, plus surrounding inhabited countryside of varying dimensions, and occasionally other smaller unincorporated communities as well. Otherwise, it has no legal status. The Census Bureau designates some unincorporated areas as "unorganized territories", as defined by
210-424: A county island is surrounded on most or all sides by municipalities. In areas of sparse population, the majority of the land in any given state may be unincorporated. Some states, including North Carolina , grant extraterritorial jurisdiction to cities and towns (but rarely villages) so that they may control zoning for a limited distance into adjacent unincorporated areas, often as a precursor (and sometimes as
280-597: A local services board in Ontario. In New Brunswick, where a significant population lives in a local service district , taxation and services may come directly from the province. The entire area of the Czech Republic is divided into municipalities ; the only exceptions are four military training areas . These are parts of the regions and do not form self-governing municipalities, but are rather governed by military offices ( újezdní úřad ), which are subordinate to
350-456: A "place or area with clustered or scattered buildings, and a permanent human population (city, settlement, town, village)." No legal boundaries exist, although a corresponding "civil" record may occur, the boundaries of which may or may not match the perceived populated place. Some nations have some exceptional unincorporated areas: Many countries, especially those with many centuries of history with multiple tiers of local government, do not use
420-473: A combined population totaling 2,146. With some exceptions, their boundaries are coterminous with that of a national or provincial park. Five of them are located within national parks, and two are within provincial parks. Special areas are rural municipalities created in 1938 under the authority of the Special Areas Act. A special area is not to be confused with a specialized municipality , which
490-502: A combined population totalling 466,470 as of 2019. According to Section 80 of the Municipal Government Act (MGA), an area may incorporate as a village if: Essentially, villages are formed from urban communities with populations of at least 300 people. When a village's population exceeds 1,000 people, its council may apply to change its status to that of a town , but the change in incorporated status
560-616: A combined population totalling 471,852 as of 2019. According to Section 581 of the Municipal Government Act (MGA), Alberta's Lieutenant Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of Municipal Affairs, may form an improvement district. Section 582 of the MGA requires that the order to form an improvement district must describe its boundaries and give it an official name. Alberta currently has seven improvement districts, which have
630-627: A council of their own, usually an Ortsvorsteher or Ortsvorsteherin (village chairman / chairwoman) is appointed by the municipal council, except in the very smallest villages. In 2000, the number of unincorporated areas in Germany, called gemeindefreie Gebiete (municipality-free areas) or singular gemeindefreies Gebiet , was 295 with a total area of 4,890 km (1,890 sq mi) and around 1.4% of its territory. However, these are mostly unpopulated areas such as forests, lakes and their surroundings, military training areas, and
700-499: A descriptive name, followed by the designation "unorganized territory". Unorganized territories were first used for statistical purposes in conjunction with the 1960 census. At the 2000 census there were 305 of these territories within the United States. Their total land area was 85,392 square miles (221,165 km ) and they had a total population of 247,331. South Dakota had the most unorganized territories, 102, as well as
770-453: A few other unique cases, almost all of Australia is part of an LGA. Unincorporated areas are often in remote locations, cover vast areas, or have very small populations. Postal addresses in unincorporated areas, as in other parts of Australia, normally use the suburb or locality names gazetted by the relevant state or territorial government. Thus, any ambiguity regarding addresses rarely exists in unincorporated areas. In Canada, depending on
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#1732798047123840-469: A form of direct democracy, such as the open town meeting or representative town meeting . Larger towns in New England may be incorporated as cities, with some form of mayor-council government. In New Jersey, multiple types exist, as well, such as city , township , town , borough , or village , but these differences are in the structure of the legislative branches, not in the powers or functions of
910-466: A legal requirement) to later annexation of those areas. This is especially useful in rural counties that have no zoning at all, or only spot zoning for unincorporated communities. In California, all counties except the City and County of San Francisco have unincorporated areas. Even in highly populated counties, the unincorporated portions may contain a large number of inhabitants. In Los Angeles County ,
980-455: A part of an incorporated place, changes to another incorporated place, or disincorporates. For example, places in Kingwood, Texas , previously unincorporated, retained "Kingwood, TX" mailing addresses after the 1996 annexation of Kingwood into the city of Houston . The Houston city government stated on its website, "The U.S. Postal Service establishes ZIP codes and mailing addresses to maximize
1050-524: A place name is "acceptable" in a mailing address or not, as is the case with Lithia Springs, Georgia . ZIP Code boundaries often ignore political boundaries, so the appearance of a place name in a mailing address alone does not indicate whether the place is incorporated or unincorporated. Unincorporated areas with permanent populations in the United States are defined by the United States Geological Survey as "populated places",
1120-478: A population between 100 and 1,000 residents may have the status of designated place in Canadian census data. In some provinces, large tracts of undeveloped wilderness or rural country are unorganized areas that fall directly under the provincial jurisdiction. Some unincorporated settlements in such unorganized areas may have some types of municipal services provided to them by a quasigovernmental agency such as
1190-457: A specialized municipality on January 1, 1996. According to Section 59 of the Municipal Government Act (MGA), hamlets are unincorporated communities that: Further, Section 59 of the MGA provides the councils of municipal districts (or counties ) and specialized municipalities the authority to designate unincorporated communities within its boundaries as hamlets. Hamlets may also be designated within improvement districts and special areas by
1260-402: A total of 19 cities with a combined population totalling 2,959,559 as of 2019. According to Section 81 of the Municipal Government Act (MGA), an area may incorporate as a town if: Essentially, towns are formed from urban communities with populations of at least 1,000 people. When a town's population exceeds 10,000 people, its council may apply to change its status to that of a city , but
1330-574: A village, but the change in incorporated status is not mandatory. Alberta currently has a total of 51 summer villages, with a combined population totalling 5,200 as of 2019. According to Section 83 of the Municipal Government Act (MGA), a municipality may incorporate as a specialized municipality under one of the following three scenarios: Essentially, specialized municipalities are municipalities that are unconventional in nature compared to other municipalities in Alberta, and they are incorporated under
1400-794: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation . There are many unincorporated communities and areas in the United States and Canada. In Argentina, the provinces of Chubut , Córdoba , Entre Ríos , Formosa , Neuquén , Río Negro , San Luis , Santa Cruz , Santiago del Estero , Tierra del Fuego , and Tucumán have areas that are outside any municipality or commune. Unlike many other countries, Australia has only one level of local government immediately beneath state and territorial governments. A local government area (LGA) often contains several towns and even entire metropolitan areas. Thus, aside from very sparsely populated areas and
1470-479: Is a completely different municipal status. Alberta's three special areas had a combined population totalling 4,184 in 2016. An urban service area is a type of hamlet that is not officially defined under the Municipal Government Act (MGA). However, the province of Alberta recognizes it as equivalent to a city for the purposes of program delivery and grant eligibility according to the Orders in Council that established
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#17327980471231540-422: Is a small group of islands that forms the easternmost part of Denmark. This small archipelago lies 20 kilometers northeast of Bornholm and is the only part of metropolitan Denmark which is not part of a municipality. The islands have been under military jurisdiction since 1685 when Denmark turned Christiansø into a naval base to in response to Sweden creating Karlskrona naval base a few years earlier. In 1926,
1610-465: Is different from that of a municipal district. As such, Alberta Municipal Affairs provides municipal districts with the opportunity to brand themselves either as municipal districts or counties in their official names. Of Alberta's 63 municipal districts, 46 of them brand themselves as counties . Over the past 30 years, Alberta has observed a trend of numerous municipal districts rebranding themselves as counties through official name changes. Some of
1680-485: Is not mandatory. Communities with shrinking populations are allowed to retain village status even if the number of residents falls below the 300 limit. Some of Alberta's villages have never reached a population of 300 people, but were incorporated as villages before there was a requirement to have a population of 300 or more. Alberta currently has a total of 81 villages, with a combined population totalling 34,600 as of 2021. According to former Section 79 of
1750-511: Is one of the most populated places in Georgia but is served by a branch of the Atlanta post office. Only after the city was incorporated in 2005 was "Sandy Springs" approved for use in mailing addresses, though "Atlanta" remains the default name. Accordingly, "Atlanta" is the only accepted place name for mailing addresses in the nearby unincorporated town of Vinings , also served by a branch of
1820-588: Is subdivided into 393 municipalities which are further classified, normally by population, as city , local council , or regional council . All three types of municipality provide services including zoning and planning. However, a few unincorporated areas exist, whether because of omissions and ambiguities left in official maps dating from the British Mandate for Palestine , or due to deliberate policy of ensuring facilities of national importance, such as Ben Gurion Airport , Mikveh Israel boarding school, or
1890-546: Is the Longyearbyen Community Council in Svalbard, which since 2004 in reality acts partly like a Norwegian municipality. Svalbard has a governor appointed by the government of Norway, ruling the area. Jan Mayen has no population, only radio and weather stations with staff, whose manager has the responsibility for the activities. Bouvet Island has only occasional visitors. In local government in
1960-541: The BAZAN Group oil refineries, would not have their operation affected by local considerations. The largest unincorporated area in Israel is the so-called "Reservation area", a triangular region whose vertexes are Beersheba , Dimona and Arad , in which all Negev Bedouins were concentrated in the 1950s. As no municipal services are provided within unincorporated areas, this effectively makes all Bedouin settlements in
2030-599: The Ministry of Defence . Note: The Brdy Military Area was abandoned by the Army in 2015 and converted into a protected landscape area , with its area being incorporated either into existing municipalities or into newly established municipalities based on the existing settlements. The other four military training areas were reduced in size in 2015 too. The decisions on whether the settlements joined existing municipalities or formed new ones were made by plebiscites. Ertholmene ,
2100-756: The Openbaar Lichaam Zuidelijke IJsselmeerpolders (Southern IJsselmeerpolders Public Body). In 1984, the Landdrost became the first mayor of the new city Almere. Since that date, the Netherlands does not have any unincorporated land areas. The Openbaar Lichaam remained, however, only governing the water body of the Markermeer . After the municipal division of the Wadden Sea (1985), the territorial waters in
2170-601: The Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo and Strathcona County as specialized municipalities . These Orders in Council (see Schedule 1, Section 7 and Schedule 1, Section 3 respectively) also state that: Essentially, urban services areas meet the eligibility requirements of the MGA to incorporate as a city. As such, they are Alberta's largest hamlets. There are currently two urban services areas in Alberta: Fort McMurray, within
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2240-665: The United States Postal Service (USPS) (indeed, some have their own post offices), and the Census Bureau uses the names of some widely recognized unincorporated communities for its CDPs for which it tabulates census data. In some instances, unincorporated areas have a mailing address indicating the name of an incorporated city, as well as those where residents of one incorporated city have mailing addresses indicating another incorporated city. Mailing addresses do not necessarily change whether an area becomes
2310-650: The northeastern states . All of the land in New Jersey , Connecticut , Massachusetts , New York , and Rhode Island , and nearly all of the land in New Hampshire , Pennsylvania , and Vermont , is part of an incorporated area of some type. In these areas, types (and official names) of local government entities can vary. In New England (which includes five of those eight states, plus the less fully incorporated state of Maine ), local municipalities are known as towns or cities, and most towns are administered by
2380-682: The Atlanta post office, even though Vinings is in Cobb County and Atlanta is in Fulton and DeKalb counties. In contrast, neighboring Mableton has not been incorporated in nearly a century, but has its own post office and thus "Mableton" is the only acceptable place name for mailing addresses in the town. The areas of Dulah and Faria , California, which are unincorporated areas in Ventura County between Ventura and Carpinteria , have
2450-411: The Minister of Municipal Affairs pursuant to Section 590 of the MGA and Section 10 of the Special Areas Act respectively. When a hamlet's population reaches 300, it becomes eligible to incorporated as a village under Section 80 of the MGA, so long as the majority of the buildings are still on parcels of land smaller than 1,850 m (19,900 sq ft). However, it is a modern-day rarity for
2520-430: The Municipal Government Act (MGA), a municipal district is an area in which: Essentially, municipal districts are large rural areas in which their citizens reside on farms, country residential subdivisions or unincorporated communities (i.e., hamlets, localities and other settlements). In Alberta, the term county is synonymous with the term municipal district – it is not its own incorporated municipal status that
2590-431: The Municipal Government Act (MGA), a summer village is an area that: As a result of Section 79 being repealed, summer villages can no longer be formed in Alberta. Essentially, summer villages were once formed from urban communities with populations of less than 300 people and significant non-permanent populations. When a summer village's population exceeds 300 people, its council may apply to change its status to that of
2660-578: The North Sea (1991) and the IJsselmeer (1994), all water bodies are now also part of a municipality and no unincorporated areas exist in the Netherlands anymore. The Openbaar Lichaam Zuidelijke IJsselmeerpolders was dissolved in 1996. The New Zealand outlying islands are offshore island groups that are part of New Zealand. The Chatham Islands is the only island group among these that are populated and it has its own territorial authority . Most of
2730-482: The U.S. Census Bureau where portions of counties are not included in any legally established minor civil division (MCD) or independent incorporated place. These occur in 10 MCD states: Arkansas , Indiana , Iowa , Louisiana , Maine , Minnesota , North Carolina , North Dakota , Ohio , and South Dakota . The census recognizes such separate pieces of territory as one or more separate county subdivisions for statistical purposes. It assigns each unorganized territory
2800-496: The United States , an unincorporated area generally refers to the part of a county that is outside any municipality. An unincorporated community is one general term for a geographic area having a common social identity without municipal organization or official political designation (i.e., incorporation as a city or town). The two main types of unincorporated communities are: Most states have granted some form of home rule , so that county commissions (or boards or councils) have
2870-574: The United States by Congress. Currently, the five major unincorporated U.S. insular areas are American Samoa , Guam , the Northern Mariana Islands , Puerto Rico , and the U.S. Virgin Islands . Unincorporated insular areas can be ceded to another nation or be granted independence. The U.S. has one incorporated insular area, Palmyra Atoll . Incorporation is regarded as perpetual by the U.S. federal government; once incorporated,
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2940-654: The ZIP Code of 93001, which is assigned to the post office at 675 E. Santa Clara St. in Ventura; thus, all mail to those two areas is addressed to Ventura. If an unincorporated area becomes incorporated, it may be split among ZIP Codes, and its new name may be recognized as acceptable for use with some or all of them in mailing addresses, as has been the case in Johns Creek and Milton, Georgia . If an incorporated area disincorporates, though, this has no effect on whether
3010-535: The area unrecognized , with the sole exception of those that were included from 2003 within the Abu Basma Regional Council . On 5 November 2012 that council was split into two new councils, Neve Midbar Regional Council and al-Kasom Regional Council . The Netherlands has had regular periods with unincorporated land when newly reclaimed land polders fall dry. Unincorporated land is since medieval times administered by an appointed officer with
3080-484: The area, many people could not afford to buy land. If someone made an agreement that the land would revert to him if they moved away, Captain Lively offered free land to anyone who wanted to build a house. Thus, the community became known as Free Home. 34°14′19″N 84°17′20″W / 34.23861°N 84.28889°W / 34.23861; -84.28889 This Cherokee County, Georgia state location article
3150-484: The authority of the existing MGA instead of relying on the creation of their own separate acts (i.e., the Special Areas Act allowed the incorporation of Alberta's three special areas and the Metis Settlements Act allowed the incorporation of Alberta's eight Métis settlements). Alberta's six specialized municipalities have a combined population totalling 242,395 as of 2019. According to Section 78 of
3220-415: The change in incorporated status is not mandatory. Communities with shrinking populations are allowed to retain town status even if the number of residents falls below the 1,000 limit. Some of Alberta's towns have never reached a population of 1,000 people, but were incorporated as towns before the current requirement to have a population of 1,000 or more. Alberta currently has a total of 107 towns, with
3290-566: The city. The California Government Code allows cities to call themselves towns, if they wish, although the designation is purely cosmetic. In the context of the insular areas of the United States, the word "unincorporated" refers to territories in which the United States Congress has determined that only selected parts of the Constitution of the United States apply and which have not been formally incorporated into
3360-749: The community now within Milton). On Cumming Highway (Georgia 20), it is also about halfway between Canton (west) and Cumming (east), the Cherokee and Forsyth county seats . The Little River begins as a small stream just southeast of Free Home, near Free Home Road. Free Home was named by Captain Delevan Lively who owned land in the area around the Crossroads Militia District in Cherokee County. Due to hard times in
3430-562: The concept of an unincorporated area. Urban service area The province of Alberta , Canada, is divided into ten types of local governments – urban municipalities (including cities , towns , villages and summer villages ), specialized municipalities , rural municipalities (including municipal districts (often named as counties), improvement districts , and special areas ), Métis settlements , and Indian reserves . All types of municipalities are governed by local residents and were incorporated under various provincial acts, with
3500-511: The council of Municipal District or Specialized Municipality within their boundaries, or by the Minister of Municipal Affairs within the boundaries of an Improvement District. For example, were they incorporated, the urban service areas of Fort McMurray in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and Sherwood Park in Strathcona County would be the fifth- and sixth-largest cities in Alberta. Unincorporated settlements with
3570-495: The county government estimates the population of its unincorporated areas to exceed one million people. Despite having 88 incorporated cities and towns, including the state's most populous, 65% of the land in Los Angeles County is unincorporated, this mostly consisting of Angeles National Forest and sparsely populated regions to its north. In California, the state constitution recognizes only one kind of municipality,
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#17327980471233640-609: The county level. In mid-Atlantic states such as New York and Pennsylvania, a hybrid model that tries to balance the two approaches is prevalent, with differing allocations of power between municipalities and counties existing. Throughout the U.S., some large cities have annexed all surrounding unincorporated areas within their counties, creating what are known as consolidated city–county forms of government (e.g., Jacksonville, Florida , and Nashville, Tennessee ). In these cases, unincorporated areas continue to exist in other counties of their respective metropolitan areas. Conversely,
3710-428: The efficiency of their system, not to recognize jurisdictional boundaries." The USPS is very conservative about recognizing new place names for use in mailing addresses and typically only does so when a place incorporates. The original place name associated with a ZIP Code is still maintained as the default place name, even though the name of the newly incorporated place is more accurate. As an example, Sandy Springs
3780-565: The entire area was declared protected cultural heritage. Population of less than 100. Statistics Denmark groups it with Bornholm in Landsdel Bornholm . Since Germany has no administrative level comparable to the townships of other countries, the vast majority of the country, close to 99%, is organized in municipalities ( German : Gemeinde , plural Gemeinden ), often consisting of multiple settlements that are not considered to be unincorporated. Because these settlements lack
3850-486: The entities themselves. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Virginia "strong county" model. Virginia and other states with this model, such as Alabama , Maryland , and Tennessee , set strict requirements on incorporation or grant counties broad powers that in other states are carried out by cities, creating a disincentive to incorporate, and thus have large urbanized areas which have no municipal government below
3920-589: The exception of Indian reserves, the administration of municipalities in Alberta is regulated by the Municipal Government Act, the Special Areas Act and the Metis Settlements Act. As of 2019, the combined unofficial population of all of Alberta's municipalities was 4,271,759. According to Section 82 of the Municipal Government Act (MGA), an area may incorporate as a city if: Essentially, cities are formed from urban communities with populations of at least 10,000 people. Alberta currently has
3990-471: The exception of improvement districts (governed by either the provincial or federal government), and Alberta's Indian reserves (governed by local band governments under federal jurisdiction). Alberta also has numerous unincorporated communities (including urban service areas , hamlets and a townsite ) that are not independent municipalities in their own right. However, they are all recognized as sub-municipal entities by Ministry of Municipal Affairs under
4060-408: The first years, the soil is equivalent to quicksand . During the initial period of inhabitation, a special, government-appointed officer was installed, the landdrost . During the administrative office of a Landdrost , no municipal council forms. In 1975, the first homes in what is now the city of Almere were built, and from 1976 to 1984, the area was governed by the Landdrost as the executive of
4130-762: The jurisdiction of specialized municipalities or rural municipalities, with the exception of the lone townsite (its jurisdiction is shared with an Indian reserve that surrounds it). With the exception of Métis settlements, Statistics Canada recognizes all of Alberta's municipalities as census subdivisions and groups them into 19 census divisions based on geography. Within census divisions, Statistics Canada groups some of Alberta's municipalities/census subdivisions into two census metropolitan areas (CMAs) or 12 census agglomerations (CAs) for enumeration purposes. All CMAs include large urban centres and surrounding census subdivisions. All CAs also include large urban centres and in some cases their surrounding census subdivisions. With
4200-468: The jurisdiction of the RM of Wood Buffalo, was formerly a city prior its amalgamation with Improvement District No. 143 on April 1, 1995. It was designated an urban service area at the time of the amalgamation. Sherwood Park has always been an unincorporated community under the jurisdiction of Strathcona County. It became an urban service area when Strathcona County changed its status from a municipal district to
4270-521: The largest amount of land under that status: 39,785 square miles (103,042 km ), or 52.4% of the state's land area. North Dakota followed with 86 territories, 20,358 square miles (52,728 km ), or 29.5% of its land area. Maine was next with 36 territories, 14,052 square miles (36,396 km ), or 45.5% of its land area. Minnesota had 71 territories, 10,552 square miles (27,330 km ), or 13% of its land area. Several other states had small amounts of unorganized territory. The unorganized territory with
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#17327980471234340-445: The largest population was Camp Lejeune, North Carolina , a United States Marine Corps base with a census population of 34,452 inhabitants. In the 2010 census , unorganized territory areas were identified in nine U.S. states: Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Many unincorporated communities are also recognized as acceptable place names for use in mailing addresses by
4410-427: The largest unincorporated areas in Germany (including all inhabited areas, but excluding lakes) with an area of more than 50 km (19 sq mi): In Bavaria, there are other contiguous unincorporated areas covering an area of more than 50 km (19 sq mi) which are however composed of several adjacent unincorporated areas, each one of which is under 50 km in area. In Israel, almost all land
4480-797: The like. As of 31 December 2007 , Germany had 248 uninhabited unincorporated areas (of which 214 are located in Bavaria ), not belonging to any municipality, consisting mostly of forested areas, lakes, and larger rivers. Also, three inhabited unincorporated areas exist, all of which served as military training areas : Osterheide and Lohheide in Lower Saxony, and Gutsbezirk Münsingen in Baden-Württemberg . They have fewer than 2,000 inhabitants in total. Gutsbezirk Münsingen has become uninhabited after losing its inhabited parts to adjacent municipalities on 1 January 2011. The following shows
4550-458: The name Landdrost or Drossaart . Also, Elten and Tudderen , both annexed from Germany after World War II , were governed by a Landdrost until they were ceded back to Germany in 1963. The most recent period with unincorporated land started in 1967, when the dyke around Southern Flevoland was closed, but several years are required before the polder is genuinely accessible for cultivation, and construction of roads and homes can start, as in
4620-400: The other island groups are not part of any administrative region or district , but are instead each designated as an Area Outside Territorial Authority . In Norway, the outlying islands of Bouvet Island , Jan Mayen , and Svalbard are outside of all of the country's counties and municipalities . They are ruled directly by national authorities without any local democracy. An exception
4690-454: The province, an unincorporated settlement is one that does not have a municipal council that governs solely over the settlement. It is usually, but not always, part of a larger municipal government. These range from small hamlets to large urbanized areas similar in size to a town or city. In Alberta , unincorporated communities can be classified as Hamlet, Locality or townsite. A Hamlet is an unincorporated community that can be designated by
4760-491: The reasons why a municipal district would rebrand itself as a county include that the term county is: more recognizable by the general public; has a more traditional appeal; and is more marketable from an economic development perspective. The last municipal district (MD) to rebrand itself as a county was the MD of Foothills No. 31, which was renamed as Foothills County on January 1, 2019. Alberta's 63 municipal districts have
4830-484: The same powers in these areas as city councils or town councils have in their respective incorporated areas. Some states instead put these powers in the hands of townships, which are minor civil divisions of each county and are called "towns" in some states. Differences in state laws regarding the incorporation of communities leads to a great variation in the distribution and nature of unincorporated areas. Unincorporated regions are essentially nonexistent in eight of
4900-564: The territory cannot be disincorporated . The United States Minor Outlying Islands without a permanent civilian population are "unorganized" in the sense that they do not have a local government, and they are administered by the Office of Insular Affairs directly. The populated American Samoa is "unorganized" in the sense that Congress has not passed an organic act , but it does have a constitution and locally elected territorial legislature and executive. An unincorporated community may be part of
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