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Zoning

In the United States, zoning refers to the practice of dividing a municipality or county into districts to control land use. It is the most widely used technique for achieving community planning goals. A comprehensive zoning ordinance specifies permitted uses, density, height, bulk, lot size, setbacks, yards, off-street parking, signage, accessory uses, and other regulations designed to protect neighborhood character. The ordinance text defines the specific meanings of the zoning terminology, and a map shows zone location. Some ordinances include special exceptions or conditional uses, subject to municipal approval, provided additional requirements are fulfilled. Zoning boards of appeal decide whether area or use variances to the regulations due to hardship are permitted in specific instances and locations. If a zoning change is made, new construction must follow the amended regulation, but existing nonconforming uses may be able to continue or might need to be eliminated after a specified time period. Zoning ordinances are local laws, and the power to zone is delegated by the states to municipalities through the Standard State Enabling Act of 1922. Zoning laws are enacted to safeguard the public health, morals, safety, and welfare of a community—a government responsibility termed police power.

Zoning History

At the beginning of the 20th century, only a few American cities had controls regulating building heights. Rapid urban growth had spurred some cities to adopt regulations controlling tenements to protect public health. However, it was not until 1916 that New York City adopted the first comprehensive zoning ordinance that controlled building height, density, and land use. The impetus for this law was the northward spread of garment manufacturing and immigrant workers from lower Manhattan that threatened to disrupt the ambiance of retail trade for influential Fifth Avenue merchants. By limiting land uses, New York's ordinance threatened the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits the taking of private property without compensation. Lawyer Edward Bassett, the creator of the New York ordinance, had anticipated a legal challenge and so promoted the benefits of zoning in stabilizing neighborhoods and protecting real estate investments across the country.

The U.S. Supreme Court case that eventually upheld zoning as a valid use of the police power was the 1926 case of Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Company. Property owned by Ambler Realty had been zoned by Euclid for residential use only, and Ambler claimed that the land had lost value as a result. But the Supreme Court finally decided that this use of the police power served a legitimate public purpose aimed at solving community development problems. Subsequently, zoning ordinances were widely adopted by municipalities throughout the United States as a method of land use control and became the major planning mechanism. In the original enabling statutes, zoning regulations were meant to be adopted in accordance with a comprehensive or master plan, but many communities failed to develop or legally adopt such long-range plans. Regulations that are based on a comprehensive plan are more likely to withstand legal challenges.

Innovative Zoning

Zoning has proved to be a crude tool for planning development and future land use, so a variety of techniques have been developed to make it more flexible. Incentive zoning offers a bonus to the developer for providing community amenities. The bonus might be additional units or extra building stories in exchange for the developer providing a park or affordable housing. Inclusionary zoning is not optional and requires developers who build more than a certain number of units to include a percentage of low- or moderate-income (or other types of) housing units. Performance zoning involves assessing the potential impact of a proposed development and requiring that certain standards be met. These may involve limiting levels of noise, limiting smoke or pollution emissions, mitigating environmental impacts such as stormwater runoff, or protecting scenic views. Clustering allows a developer to redesign a site plan to group homes more densely than the ordinance permits in specific areas, provided that the allowable total site density is not exceeded. This popular approach can preserve open space and lower infrastructure costs. Overlay zones, such as floodplain, waterfront, or historic districts, impose additional restrictions to the underlying zoning district to protect property. Floating zones give municipalities flexibility in locating desired uses while examining significant projects for future impacts. These zones are not located until a proposal is made, the project meets municipal standards, and the project is approved by the local legislative body. The transfer of development rights (TDR) allows the right to develop to be separated from an owner's “bundle of rights” so that the owner may retain the land but sell the development rights for use on other properties. TDR can be used to preserve farmland or historic structures in a sending area while transferring the increased development density to an appropriate receiving area.

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