In this study, temporal and spatial changes in vegetation phenology in Urmia city were investigated. For this purpose, a circle with a radius of 18 km from the city center was chosen as the study area. This area was divided into 9 concentric circles using concentric circles to the center of the Ayalat square in the center of the city, and the phenological response to urban development was investigated along an urban-rural gradient. For this purpose, the land cover type product (MCD12Q1) and the vegetation phenology products (MCD12Q2) of the MODIS sensor were used for the period 2001 to 2022. The results of this study showed that in the case of grasslands, the starting of the growing season (SOS) had a significant decreasing trend (-0.67 day year-1), but the end of the growing season (EOS) and the the growing season length (GSL) did not show a significant trend. Also, in the case of croplands, the starting of the growing season did not show a significant trend. But the end of the growing season (0.68 day year-1) and the growing season length (1.09 day year-1) showed a significant increase. In the case of grasslands, the circles near the city had an earlier start of the growing season and a longer growing season than the circles further away from the city. Also, the results of the present study showed completely different behavior of grasslands and croplands in terms of the behavior of phenology parameters in the urban-rural gradient. The response of EOS and GSL at distances less than 12 km to city center was different from that at distances greater than 12 km, which may be due to the dominance of the effects of other heat or cold islands (such as the lake effect) over the effects of urban heat islands at distances farther than 12 km.