Unincorporated "cities"

[empirestate]

I'm down here in Hershey, PA at the moment, a notable town for several reasons. One of these reasons (to people like me who think about these things) is that the place is unincorporated: it's not a city or borough as most substantial settlements in PA would be, but an unincorporated part of Derry Township. Nevertheless, it's definitely an urban entity with centralized development and a strong individual identity, and in the Northeast at least, such a thing is almost always a corporate entity.

So it got me thinking, what other substantial, prominent "towns" are there, that in fact have no individual political existence? By that I don't mean large suburban areas that outlie a major city, such as you find all over Long Island (though there might be some appropriate locales there as well...Riverhead comes to mind). It would be a centralized settlement with a well-defined core, such as would usually constitue a town, village, city, borough or similar entity.

There are probably more than occur to me at the moment, but I'd bet that Hershey is among the most famous.

[Stephane Dumas]

Sherwood Park, just east of Edmonton in Alberta is part of Strathcona county. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Park

[Takumi]

One near me is Chester, VA. According to Wikipedia it has a population of 20,000. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester,_Virginia

[Brandon]

Honolulu, Hawai'i, as well as any other "municipality" in Hawai'i.  There are no incorporated places in the entire state!

Eagle River, Eagle Harbor, and Copper Harbor, Michigan.  One of the three is the county seat of Keweenaw County.

[tdindy88]

Anything in Virginia that isn't an incorporated city, which I think is about 30 communities total, though I may be off on the number. I know I was shocked to hear that there is no city of Arlington, Virginia, only the county.

[CL]

The area wherein the Las Vegas Strip resides is actually unincorporated Clark County.

[oscar]

Anything in Virginia that isn't an incorporated city, which I think is about 30 communities total, though I may be off on the number. I know I was shocked to hear that there is no city of Arlington, Virginia, only the county.

It's more complicated than that.  Virginia has 95 counties and 39 independent cities (not part of any county).  However, some of the counties include incorporated cities and other places, each subject to both its own local government and the government of its county.

But yeah, Arlington County has no incorporated communities therein.  (Still much smaller population than Honolulu, though.)

[brad2971]

I'm down here in Hershey, PA at the moment, a notable town for several reasons. One of these reasons (to people like me who think about these things) is that the place is unincorporated: it's not a city or borough as most substantial settlements in PA would be, but an unincorporated part of Derry Township. Nevertheless, it's definitely an urban entity with centralized development and a strong individual identity, and in the Northeast at least, such a thing is almost always a corporate entity.

So it got me thinking, what other substantial, prominent "towns" are there, that in fact have no individual political existence? By that I don't mean large suburban areas that outlie a major city, such as you find all over Long Island (though there might be some appropriate locales there as well...Riverhead comes to mind). It would be a centralized settlement with a well-defined core, such as would usually constitue a town, village, city, borough or similar entity.

There are probably more than occur to me at the moment, but I'd bet that Hershey is among the most famous.

Highlands Ranch, Colorado. It is, for all intents and purposes, a city of nearly 100K, with the strong identity found in most incorporated cities. It is organized, however, as a Metropolitan District.

[roadman65]

Toms River, NJ (the county seat of Ocean County, NJ) was an unicorporated part of Dover Township.  Now the name of Dover was changed to Toms River, so you can now say it is fully corporated. Although the original enity is still what is was in the township that now bears its name.

Islelin, Colonia. Avenel, Sewaren, Port Reading, and Fords are unincorporated parts of Woodbridge, NJ.  However, one part of Woodbridge Township is considered Metuchen, NJ cause the Metuchen Post Office delivers mail to this section located west of US 1 south of Interchange 130 on the GSP. Woodbridge is one of the top 5 largest cities in New Jersey.


Merrit Island, FL is not established either, and is part of Brevard County. It is widely noted as much as Cocoa and Cocoa Beach, its neighbors that are corporated.

[The High Plains Traveler]

I'm down here in Hershey, PA at the moment, a notable town for several reasons. One of these reasons (to people like me who think about these things) is that the place is unincorporated: it's not a city or borough as most substantial settlements in PA would be, but an unincorporated part of Derry Township. Nevertheless, it's definitely an urban entity with centralized development and a strong individual identity, and in the Northeast at least, such a thing is almost always a corporate entity.

So it got me thinking, what other substantial, prominent "towns" are there, that in fact have no individual political existence? By that I don't mean large suburban areas that outlie a major city, such as you find all over Long Island (though there might be some appropriate locales there as well...Riverhead comes to mind). It would be a centralized settlement with a well-defined core, such as would usually constitue a town, village, city, borough or similar entity.

There are probably more than occur to me at the moment, but I'd bet that Hershey is among the most famous.

Highlands Ranch, Colorado. It is, for all intents and purposes, a city of nearly 100K, with the strong identity found in most incorporated cities. It is organized, however, as a Metropolitan District.

As is Pueblo West, which I believe at 30K is the second-largest metro district in the state. As a metro district, we cannot enact a local sales tax, which in Colorado is one of the primary sources of local revenue.

When Rand McNally redid their map design for the 2011 edition, they wiped metro districts from the Colorado map. So there's no Pueblo West or Highlands Ranch, but they did add an entity (not a census-designated place) called "Wild Horse", which is a collection of trailers and a few horse farms north of U.S. 50 between Pueblo and Pueblo West. If you asked anyone around here where Wild Horse is, they might think of the road but not a community.

[Mr_Northside]

Not as famous as Hershey, but here in Western PA, one of the biggest unincorporated communities is probably Wexford.

[empirestate]

Heh, I lived in the Wexford ZIP for nearly a year. I never identified with the actual village of Wexford; it wasn't even in the same township, and the developed area surrounding it had no relation to the scale or influence of that village.  It's actually my go-to example of the confusion often found among people about where exactly they live, thanks largely to post office naming practices.

[SSOWorld]

Greenwich CT is unincorporated.  the "city proper" is one of 5 zip-code regions in the Town of Greenwich

Honolulu is the only true city in Hawaii, but the technicality is that Honolulu is the entire Oahu island (merged with the county).  So in a sense the "city" is a misnomer.

[roadman65]

What about the Borough of Queens in NYC?  The Post Office allows each section (such as Woodside, Flushing, etc) to be called as communities of their own with people reffering to them as parts of Long Island (although Brooklyn and Queens are part of Long Island contrary to misconception).

The other boroughs are called by their respected name like the mailing address for all parts of Staten Island are called that.  Only Manhattan gets to be called New York even though all five boroughs are indeed NYC.

[oscar]

Honolulu is the only true city in Hawaii, but the technicality is that Honolulu is the entire Oahu island (merged with the county).  So in a sense the "city" is a misnomer.

But urban Honolulu has a discrete "census designated place" (and Census population count) of its own, that excludes most of Oahu and more than half of Oahu's population.  Plus there are other separate "cities" (CDPs) on Oahu, some with tens of thousands of residents, such as Kailua, Kaneohe, Pearl City, etc.  At least one of those other communities has a larger population than Hilo, the largest city in the rest of Hawaii.

[SSOWorld]

  I missed that part.

[vdeane]

What about the Borough of Queens in NYC?  The Post Office allows each section (such as Woodside, Flushing, etc) to be called as communities of their own with people reffering to them as parts of Long Island (although Brooklyn and Queens are part of Long Island contrary to misconception).

The other boroughs are called by their respected name like the mailing address for all parts of Staten Island are called that.  Only Manhattan gets to be called New York even though all five boroughs are indeed NYC.

All the boroughs correspond to counties that few people know about.  Only the Bronx and Queens have the same borough and county names.  Manhattan is New York county (hence the post office name), Brooklyn is Kings county, and Staten Island is Richmond county.

[empirestate]

Honolulu, Hawai'i, as well as any other "municipality" in Hawai'i.  There are no incorporated places in the entire state!

OK, Honolulu CDP would be a pretty good candidate that I overlooked. It's a little imperfect because Honolulu is also an entity coextensive with a county, but taking just the CDP separately from the whole county fits pretty well. You have a similar situation with Arlington, VA...although it isn't itself incorporated, it is coextensive with a county and doesn't seem to have any additional identity inside of that county boundary (the way that Honolulu CDP does within Honolulu city/county).

The area wherein the Las Vegas Strip resides is actually unincorporated Clark County.

That one would fall under the suburban areas exclusion, except for the notable point that it is the unincorporated Strip Area that most people identify as Las Vegas.

Highlands Ranch, Colorado. It is, for all intents and purposes, a city of nearly 100K, with the strong identity found in most incorporated cities. It is organized, however, as a Metropolitan District.

Definitely an example of a suburban area, like Pueblo West also mentioned. A similar East Coast example would be Levittown, NY (or Levittown, PA, or...): highly developed area with good name recognition, but lacking the core settlement pattern that typically triggers a town/borough/city formation. (I realize I'm taking an East Coast perspective on that, and that there are many Western incorporated cities that would look more like a Levittown or a Highland Ranch, but these don't strike me as particularly unusual.)

What about the Borough of Queens in NYC?  The Post Office allows each section (such as Woodside, Flushing, etc) to be called as communities of their own with people reffering to them as parts of Long Island (although Brooklyn and Queens are part of Long Island contrary to misconception).

Some of the Queens neighborhoods do retain very individual qualitites, like the discrete cities and towns they once were, but they are all now covered under the New York City municipal corporation (and places like Flushing were previously corporate entities of their own).

Greenwich CT is unincorporated.  the "city proper" is one of 5 zip-code regions in the Town of Greenwich

New England's minor civil divisions (towns, mostly) do throw a little wrench into the works. While the relationship of Greenwich "proper" to the Town of Greenwich is similar to that between Hershey and Derry Township, New England towns on the whole tend to retain much stronger identities than Pennsylvania townships. What's more, the Greenwich-type will tend to be found an a huge percentage of New England communities as a result.

Toms River, NJ (the county seat of Ocean County, NJ) was an unicorporated part of Dover Township.  Now the name of Dover was changed to Toms River, so you can now say it is fully corporated. Although the original enity is still what is was in the township that now bears its name.

Good example, and similar to Riverhead, NY...although the name change in Toms River's case interestingly brings up the question of how much the name itself matters. I mean, if Hershey were located in Hershey Township I would never have even brought it up, even though it's unusual in PA for a township to share the name of its central settlement (in marked contrast to New York State and its towns). And taking again the Greenwich example, what if Mianus or Cos Cob had ended up becoming the "downtown" of Greenwich town?

But I suppose, since identity and name recognition is a big criterion in the question, you could say it matters rather a lot.   

[jwolfer]

Toms River, NJ (the county seat of Ocean County, NJ) was an unicorporated part of Dover Township.  Now the name of Dover was changed to Toms River, so you can now say it is fully corporated. Although the original enity is still what is was in the township that now bears its name.

Islelin, Colonia. Avenel, Sewaren, Port Reading, and Fords are unincorporated parts of Woodbridge, NJ.  However, one part of Woodbridge Township is considered Metuchen, NJ cause the Metuchen Post Office delivers mail to this section located west of US 1 south of Interchange 130 on the GSP. Woodbridge is one of the top 5 largest cities in New Jersey.


Merrit Island, FL is not established either, and is part of Brevard County. It is widely noted as much as Cocoa and Cocoa Beach, its neighbors that are corporated.

In most states there are unincorporated areas. In NJ  and as far as I know PA, NY and  most of New England everywhere is incorporated as a town or township. ( It is amazing when you look at NJ with 566 or so incorporated towns and then a state like Maryland with a handful of incorporated places. )

I guess that is why New England states the counties are not really that important for governance. It brings up a question I have seen NC maps with Townships, how important are they in governing or are they just for something like fire districts

[empirestate]

In most states there are unincorporated areas. In NJ  and as far as I know PA, NY and  most of New England everywhere is incorporated as a town or township. ( It is amazing when you look at NJ with 566 or so incorporated towns and then a state like Maryland with a handful of incorporated places. )

I guess that is why New England states the counties are not really that important for governance. It brings up a question I have seen NC maps with Townships, how important are they in governing or are they just for something like fire districts

Everything in NY and PA is organized into a township or town or city or borough (in PA). The term "incorporated" is not generally used to refer to these entities, even though they do constitute a unit of government. I think New England's towns are more likely to be called "incorporated", but the census still makes a distinction. In fact, they discuss it very thoroughly here: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/garm.html . Chapters 8 and 9 in particular deal with the distinction between, and overlap of, minor civil divisions and incorporated places and describes how each state is organized for such purposes.

Probably because the census's definitions are reflected in usual cartographic practice, I have always thought of incorporated places in the same way they describe, i.e., as distinct from minor civil divisions.

[jwolfer]

In most states there are unincorporated areas. In NJ  and as far as I know PA, NY and  most of New England everywhere is incorporated as a town or township. ( It is amazing when you look at NJ with 566 or so incorporated towns and then a state like Maryland with a handful of incorporated places. )

I guess that is why New England states the counties are not really that important for governance. It brings up a question I have seen NC maps with Townships, how important are they in governing or are they just for something like fire districts

Everything in NY and PA is organized into a township or town or city or borough (in PA). The term "incorporated" is not generally used to refer to these entities, even though they do constitute a unit of government. I think New England's towns are more likely to be called "incorporated", but the census still makes a distinction. In fact, they discuss it very thoroughly here: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/garm.html . Chapters 8 and 9 in particular deal with the distinction between, and overlap of, minor civil divisions and incorporated places and describes how each state is organized for such purposes.

Probably because the census's definitions are reflected in usual cartographic practice, I have always thought of incorporated places in the same way they describe, i.e., as distinct from minor civil divisions.

I grew up in NJ and the townships there act as fully incorporated entities.  Townships are fully functioning local governments more than a minor civil divisions.  I think that at one time Townships were somewhat less formal.  Thus the wave of boroughs in the late 19th and early 20th century.  But with the massive suburbanization the township became like a city or borough.  Interestingly NJ counties are still pretty strong. With the financial bind many municipalities are in, we will see some consolidation of munincipal governments in NJ... i am sure there are many who would love to see full county consolidation in NJ...i doubt it will happen anytime soon

[hbelkins]

In Kentucky, counties are the predominant form of government. Counties are creations of the state.

Cities are incorporated and can be created or dissolved.

Kentucky has at least one county (McCreary) with no incorporated cities, even though there is a place there named Whitley City.

[pianocello]

If both Rand McNally and Wikipedia both say Metairie, LA is unincorporated, then it must be unincorporated. 

[webfil]

North of the border, the municipality of Baie-James claims to be the largest incorporated municipality in the world, covering 333,255.55 km² (128,670.69 square miles) of land, an area similar to the size of Finland or the state of New Mexico.

It is responsible for the maintenance of over 2100 kilometres (1300 miles) of high-standard (well, considering they serve about 20,000 people) concrete-paved and unpaved trunk highways, plus numerous roads to remote areas such as localities, indian reservations, mines, hydro power generating dams and lumbering sites.

Also, the municipality maintains a network of touristic infrastructures (unorganized campgrounds, hiking trails, boat launches, fishing sites, rest areas, restrooms, ...) along the highways for its residents and visitors to enjoy.

[empirestate]

I grew up in NJ and the townships there act as fully incorporated entities.  Townships are fully functioning local governments more than a minor civil divisions.

That's true in NY as well, although they remain distinguished as MCDs. Towns are never referred to as incorporated entities, that term being reserved only for villages and cities. I think the difference is that in NJ, boroughs, villages and towns are independent of any township, so the townships do just as much to divide up the county as the other kinds, and each is disparate from the other. In NY, by contrast, villages are dependent of towns, so they get the "incorporated" moniker to distinguish them from the "unincorporated" towns that contain them. Nevertheless, the towns are strong governments, often more so than villages.

In PA, boroughs are independent of townships, but are usually geographically surrounded by them the way NY's villages are surrounded by towns. So there to, you get the same distinction as in NY, except that there isn't technically an overlap. Also, PA townships tend to be much weaker governments than NY towns or NJ townships.