An important measure to prevention of excavation damage is to provide for land use planning that will help protect both pipelines and people. In many cases around the country, communities have grown in population and have expanded into formerly undeveloped areas. In doing so, the communities have absorbed land that contains existing pipeline rights-of-way (ROW). RSPA/OPS encourages communities to adopt and implement land use policies that would set up buffers to prevent urban encroachment on pipeline ROW. States have broad control over land use policy and can provide local governments with model zoning and land use planning guidance to provide appropriate separation between populated areas and pipelines, including standards for set-back distances from pipeline ROW.
