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ZONING BY-LAWS & AMENDMENTS Form

US cities grow and develop sinks to a little-known and sometimes arcane set of rules and regulations known as the zoning code zoning influences everything for building heights to signage understanding the zoning code is key to understanding US cities and how to influence them for the better in this video and I go over the basics of zoning I'm going to describe the pros and cons of zoning and finally I'm going to tell you how you can influence the zoning code in your community to make the more walkable bikeable and equitable so let's start with zoning basics the zoning code consists of two basic parts the map and the regulations let's start with a map if you've ever played a SimCity game you have an idea of how a zoning map works every parcel in a city is placed in the zoning district that specifies the types of uses allowed now every city can create their own zoning districts but they all generally have the same basic types of districts they are residential from single-family homes to high-rise apartments in yellow commercial including retail restaurants and hotels colored red industrial in gray though some maps will show them in purple institutional which means schools and public buildings typically in blue and open space in green appropriately here's an example of a zoning map you can see that most of the city is residential in yellow there's a large industrial section in the Northeast and a few areas of commercial in red now zoning maps can get a lot more complicated than just five colors now in this example map here you can see all of the colors just mentioned with the addition of an orangish color for multi-family residential it's common for zoning districts to separate not only uses but intensity of uses you often see C 1 C 2 and C 3 zones where the increasing number means it allows increasing levels of commercial density in addition you may also see overlay zones these zones as the name implies lays over the top of other zones and adds additional restrictions and regulations within them okay so that's the map it assigns every parcel to a district that has its own set of rules regarding use and intensity next up are the regulations themselves now this is what is only gets as reputation for being so boring there's no video game that simulates the writing of a zoning code but it's what all the important stuff is located so let's dive in and make some sense out of it the zoning code or ordinance contains sections for each of the zones found in the map within these sections there's typically a youth table this table with all the permitted uses within each zone for example a youth table for commercial zones a bakery as an allowed use but an auto salvage yard is a not allowed use many news tables also classify some uses as conditional uses or special uses fetuses aren't allowed outright but require some consultation and approval from the city government first it's more of a case by case basis situations after the youth table comes the basic development requirements this means standards for things like building setbacks and side yards minimum lot sizes and building Heights every city has different requirements for their zoning districts after the use tables and development requirements for each zoning districts most zoning codes will contain impact regulations or regulations that are not specific to any one zoning district these often include regulations for signage parking standards historic preservation standards and urban design criteria that's a really quick overview of the zoning code at this point you may be thinking yourself that's all sounds really reasonable and you know what you're right it is reasonable and that's one of the benefits is done zoning tries it's best to ensure that new developments built in a way that's predictable reasonable and minimize impact to adjacent property owners it's why City readers and solve zoning codes in many cities over 100 years ago voting ensured that an oil refinery can't be built adjacent to a neighborhood single-family home I think we could all agree that's a pretty worthwhile goal increasingly however planners civic leaders and community members have begun to question the practice of zoning for all the positive aspects there are quite a few negative qualities too and I'll list a couple of the biggest ones first communities can use zoning codes as a tool of exclusion historically this happened explicitly cities would literally write zoning codes that excluded people from districts based on skin color or ethnicity now these are clearly unconstitutional and eventually removed but these explicit codes gave way to implicit ones that many communities still use today the most common way to exclude people using the zoning code is by imposing large minimum lot size requirements and other regulations that increase the cost of building a home if new homes must be built on one acre lots are larger for example only large expensive homes will be built this allows cities to become enclaves for the rich at the expense of low and moderate income families the second major criticism comes from the segregation of uses that it described as a positive before segregating uses can also lead to sterile environments and for citizens to travel large distances between different zones for trips to work school shopping and home many communities have introduced mixed use zones that allow for a mixture of residential and commercial uses to mitigate this problem so mixed few zones are typically not widespread across zoning maps alternatives to traditional single use zoning such as form based codes in reform zoning and move away from the segregation paradigm form based codes regulate the size and shape of buildings instead of their use so that's zoning in a nutshell potentially useful but probably could be better how do you make voting work better in your community the first step go to your city's website and find the page for their Planning Department sometimes known as the Community Development Department in most cities they will post upcoming meetings and town halls you may get lucky in your community is in the midst of a zoning code revision these happen rarely but when they do it is an excellent opportunity to make your voice heard you can attend a meeting and give your opinion send it into a planning staff for elected officials or write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper you can tell them to include more mixed use zones that allow for vibrant walkable places if your community isn't going to rezoning code revision and that's probably the case you can do many of the same things but instead you must make a case that the zoning code is in need of a refresh your elected officials may not be aware that their zoning code could be better you could be starting a much needed conversation in your city the bottom line is that you want great city you need a zoning code that makes it perfectly easy and legal to build great development projects nobody might sound like a boring place to start but it literally determines what can and can't be built in your community