Shrinking mining cities — once prosperous settlements servicing a mining site or a system of mining sites — are characterized by long-term population and/or economic decline. Many of these towns experience periods of growth and shrinkage, mirroring the ebbs and flows of international mineral markets which determine the fortunes of the dominant mining corporation upon which each of these towns heavily depends. This dependence on one main industry produces a parallel development in the fluctuations of both workforce and population. Thus, the strategies of the main company in these towns can, to a great extent, determine future developments and have a great impact on urban management plans. Climate conditions, knowledge, education and health services, as well as transportation links, are important factors that have impacted on lifestyles in mining cities, but it is the parallel development with the private sector operators (often a single corporation) that constitutes the distinctive feature of these cities and that ultimately defines their shrinkage. This article discusses shrinking mining cities in capitalist economies, the factors underpinning their development, and some of the planning and community challenges faced by these cities in Australia, Canada, Japan and Mexico.

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A study of countermeasures of vacant properties and distressed areas in the City of Baltimore, New Jersey and Massachusetts States revealed that 1) countermeasures vary by city and state, 2) small municipalities need supports of State Governments for implementation of countermeasures, 3) there are several tools to transfer vacant properties from a municipality to a rehabilitation entity faster, more assured, and cheaper, 4) a municipality with less vacant properties addresses in an individual manner, while that with more addresses in an area-wide manner, 5) rebuilding of a distressed area requires a committed neighborhood organization and a community development corporation, an authorized rebuilding plan, supports of a municipality, financial resources, and potential of real estate market.

Although prefecture governments consider that long-term comprehensive plans are the most important among all their plans and policies, most of the prefectures do not synchronize timing of plan making with that of governor elections, nor show the plans at the top page of their homepages during the whole plan period. In order to make a practical plan, future vision and target should be more realistic, necessity of each content of the plan must be reviewed, target customers of the plan are carefully identified, and governors must clearly make more commitments to the plan making and implementation.

Measure 37 of the Oregon State, which obliges governments to compensate landowners if their land value decreases because of land use regulations, was approved in 2004. Due to lack of financial resources, governments forgo regulations. Hence, the Oregon State faced the crisis of the growth management policy based on land use control. In 2007, the Oregon legislature passed a new law that revised the Measure 37 after public hearings and put it as a referendum, Measure 49, which passed with 61% of approval. Measure 49 admits the right of construction of 1-10 houses and transfer of the right of claim, while it denies large-scale development to protect agricultural land and forest. In this manner, Measure 37 was modified in a democratic and compromising manner.