What do zoning laws establish

The municipality might compromise by allowing a planned unit development PUD , with the dwellings clustered together and surrounded by open parkland, and perhaps even a small commercial area at the entry. Last reviewed October Home Ownership Contents. Sources of Zoning and Land Use Laws At the federal level, environmental statutes establish standards that may be enforced by federal administrative agencies or by state agencies implementing federally approved state programs.

Exceptions to Zoning: Nonconforming Uses and Variances Decisions on individual properties, including those involving conditional uses, nonconforming uses, variances, and rezoning of specific parcels, are typically handled in administrative proceedings.

Zoning Conflicts Since zoning involves competing interests, local governments are constantly exploring new techniques to resolve conflicts. Home Ownership. Buying a Home. Owning a Home. Appraisals of Homes. Homeowners' Associations. Condominium Conversion. Meeting Neighbors and Resolving Property Disputes. Paying Your Mortgage. At this point the zone floats earth. Mixed-use districts allow for a combination of broader use categories e. A PUD Planned Use District is a type of mixed-use development often residential, retail and office with a cohesive design plan.

To encourage the feasibility of such developments, a city may waive or modify regulations that would otherwise be required of the individual uses. Historic districts are created to preserve structures that are significant historically, architecturally or culturally.

Once district categories are established, the ordinance then spells out the uses permitted within each. Typical use types include:. One quick aside: annexation. Cities may be able to expand their boundaries through annexation of neighboring unincorporated land.

The ordinance may include rules dictating how annexed property will be zoned when brought within city limits. Where the use was originally in compliance, but the regulations changed to make it non-compliant, the use became an LNCU.

Common restrictions are:. Regulation of Districts. The devil is in the details. As a general caution, while a city has the right to regulate uses, if such regulation effectively deprives a landowner of all economically reasonable use or value of their property, it can be considered a regulatory taking.

A taking in the real property arena refers to the government exercising its power of eminent domain to acquire ownership of private property for a public use or benefit. While a government has this right, if they use it they must compensate the landowner for the loss of his land. Time for the city to get out its checkbook. With that said, regulations most commonly dictate the size, density and location of structures within a parcel, as well as parking and green space requirements.

Size can relate to the footprint, height, number of stories, etc. Density refers to the amount of development allowed per acre, calculated either by the number of dwelling units per acre for residential or floor area ratio for commercial. Location is governed in part by setbacks, the distance between structures and property lines. Examples include limitations on parking, setbacks, the colors and architecture of structures, and types of landscaping, roofs and building materials.

The ordinance may also impose regulations to protect natural resources such as: 1 prohibiting building within floodplains, or requiring remediation if floodplains are eliminated; and 2 mitigating the impact of shoreline development by, for example, requiring larger setbacks from a shoreline.

Additionally, some ordinances will highly regulate uses the city wishes to minimize, such as the sale of alcohol, adult uses, and the operation of pay-day loan businesses. Such regulations often stipulate these uses must be a certain minimum distance from schools or churches, though other conditions appear.

The zoning regulation of adult uses is especially complex as Constitutional issues of free speech are involved. This section describes how actions under the ordinance are reviewed, approved, denied and appealed. It typically details:. Cities and courts generally strictly interpret these provisions. Zoning ordinances will typically govern applications for rezonings, conditional use permits, and variances. A rezoning application may be judged not only on its compliance with the ordinance, but in some cases its compliance with the comprehensive plan.

While property may lawfully be zoned differently than its surrounding uses, such varying uses are typically permitted because they serve a public benefit or a useful purpose to the other properties.

For example, sound-planning policies would permit a school to be located in the center of a residential neighborhood. Locating an adult bookstore in the same neighborhood would not.

A common example is allowing a convenience store or gas station in a residential area. If the negative aspects of the use can be minimized through conditions, the use will be valuable to the area. If the use requested in a CUP application is one of the conditional uses specified in the ordinance, and if the conditions are accepted, the permit must be granted as a matter right.

Variances typically are only available for exceptions to physical regulations e. All the case study cities in this volume have well-developed zoning regulations.

For example, the evolution of zoning regulation in Ahmedabad is summarized in box. Evolution of zoning regulations in Ahmedabad, India. In Ahmedabad, India, zoning was first established in the development plan prepared in and approved in It was based on the Bombay Town Planning Act , which for the first time allowed for the creation of a development plan to manage growth of urban areas.

The previous Bombay Town Planning Act only allowed for the creation of town planning schemes to facilitate the improvement of existing urban areas. Zoning is included within the development regulations prepared as a part of the overall development plan for urban development areas UDAs.

In accordance with this act, an urban development authority is established for a UDA which is usually greater than the jurisdiction of the city. There are a total of over 20 zones identified in the development plan. However, most of the city development areas are under one of five zones. The core walled city zone includes the old city of Ahmedabad. The Gamtal zone includes various urban villages, which are now part of the greater Ahmedabad development area. The general fabric of the city falls under R1 or R2 zones, which are mixed residential zones.

R3 is a more restrictive residential zone usually found on the periphery of the city where higher intensity of development is not encouraged. Development in the city is mainly focused in the R1 and R2 zones. In these zones, the base floor space index FSI is 1. This gives a maximum allowable FSI of 2. Until the recent development plan, the height restriction for development was 40 meters. With the new development plan, this maximum height has been raised to 70 meters for plots that front on meter wide roads and on all plots in the central business district overlay zone.

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I Accept Show Purposes. Your Money. Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. What Is a Zoning Ordinance? Key Takeaways A zoning ordinance is a rule that defines how property in specific geographic zones can be used. Compare Accounts. The offers that appear in this table are from partnerships from which Investopedia receives compensation.

This compensation may impact how and where listings appear. Investopedia does not include all offers available in the marketplace. Related Terms Zoning Definition Zoning refers to laws that regulate how real property can be used in certain areas, designating the type of operations allowed on a site.