Most Indonesians nowadays live in the urban area, due to urbanization. 60 percent of the inhabitants of Java, the most populous island in Indonesia, will live in the urban area that reach around eighty-five percent by 2035, a figure that is higher than the national average of 55 percent. Urbanization has brought a large influx of newcomers not only into the metropolitan or large cities, but also into small and medium cities. One of urbanization’s most concerning impacts is urban sprawl that harms sustainability. There is a dearth of academic literature studying the phenomenon of urban sprawl in Indonesian small cities. Urban sprawl in small cities is commonly ignored, considered as a contained problem the solution for which is a simple use of local spatial plan. Unfortunately, for Indonesia, this solution is difficult to implement because city spatial plans works only within administrative jurisdictions, whilst the urban sprawls themselves generally occur across the borders of different administrative jurisdictions. This study studies urban sprawls occurring in several small cities in Java. While those cities already have spatial plan, most were the general spatial plan (Rencana Tata Ruang Wilayah Kota/Kabupaten) that operates only within the city’s administrative jurisdiction. We are unable to find detailed strategies in these cities to deal with urban sprawl. We also found that all spatial plans are unable to come up with urban growth boundary strategy. Finally, we are also unable to find integrated detailed spatial plan among those cities to answer the urban sprawl situation.
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