Zoning Codes: The Basics of Urban Planning
Urban planning, also called city or town planning, is the method by which municipalities are organized. This type of public policy seeks to regulate use of land in a way beneficial to its inhabitants, and also efficient for commercial and governmental agencies. Economic, environmental, social and aesthetic issues come into play as states and regions plan the development of their communities.
In North America, coordination of land-use regulation is often based on ‘zoning‘ codes. The name arises from the common practice of structuring communities on the basis of zones, mapped areas in with different land-use allowances and purposes. Zoning serves to protect the interests of residents or businesses by preventing new developments that would be harmful to the existing configuration.
Zoning has classifications for all attributes of a given lot, and its regulations require adherence to those classifications. For example, zoning identifies a lot as residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, or as an open space, indicating how the land may be used. It also specifies how many people may occupy the land, a concept known as density—single-family homes are considered low-density, while a high-rise apartment building constitutes a high-density usage. New buildings must adhere to neighborhood precedents of height, square footage, location on the lot (also known as setback), proportions of landscaping to building, parking, and other aesthetic guidelines.
Zoning rules are designed to create a consistency within neighborhoods, but as their purpose is to serve the neighborhood, zoning commissions may permit exceptions to their rules, sometimes for the nature of the lot, and sometimes as a reward for other community-oriented benefits of the proposed structure. Some types of zoning employ more variances than others, subsequently creating more and more different zoning methods. Most zoning systems, however, can be broken down into one of four basic types:
Euclidean zoning
This type of zoning derives its name from the small town of Euclid, Ohio, which battled a land owner all the way to the Supreme Court over the issue of whether or not regulations on his property constituted a violation of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. When the Supreme Court ruled on behalf of the town, a precedent was set admitting all future municipalities the right to enforce their land-use regulations.
Euclidean zoning is also called “Building Block zoning” because it partitions land usage into set geographical districts within the community. For example, a certain section of a town could be reserved for single-family residential, versus a separate multi-family residential area; both would be strictly segregated from commercial and industrial developments. A few exceptions may be made to accommodate the primary uses of a zone—say, a small grocery store in a residential zone, or company housing near its affiliated business. Regardless, most buildings within a zone must conform to the dimensional regulations regarding height, setback, lot coverage, and so on.
Euclidean zoning codes are implemented by the substantial majority of towns and cities in the United States. Its popularity is due to its relative efficacy in preserving the harmony of its residents and businesses, and chiefly to its ease of use. The rules, once set, are simple to understand and follow, and have the benefit of legal precedent. However, many criticize it for its rigidity, maintaining that its precepts have been outdated with the advent of other urban planning concerns.
Performance zoning
This system of zoning emphasizes the importance of a structure’s ultimate performance, often by implementing a points system in which certain elements and compliance options are tallied up in order to meet zoning goals. Points can be awarded for plans to mitigate the environmental impact of the building, include public amenities or build affordable housing units. Additional dimensional or functional standards may also be set.
Performance zoning offers a more flexible system, but at the expense of simplicity. It necessitates a large amount of discretionary activity in the review process, and is often complicated to implement. Consequently, performance zoning is relatively rare, and is only found as an additional set of guidelines within a broader set of regulations.
Incentive zoning
Incentive zoning attempts to reach urban planning goals by instituting a system that rewards developers for aligning their new structures with the city’s aims. A basic set of zoning regulations is accompanied by an extensive list of options, to be adhered to at the discretion of the developer. Inclusion of any of these additional options, however, will be rewarded with ‘incentives’: for example, inclusion of affordable housing results in floor-area-ratio bonuses, and public amenities lead to height-limit bonuses.
The complexity of incentive zoning is more or less balanced with its flexibility, leading to its increasing appearance within the last couple of decades. It does require more activity on the part of the supervising commission, as buildings with incentives take more effort to review, and also because the rewards system must be constantly reevaluated to be certain that the incentives remain in proportion with the benefit given to developers.
Design-based zoning
Design-based zoning emphasizes the aesthetics of prospective buildings over their use, creating zones within a city subdivided by requirements for height, setback, and stylistic features. Though more complex than the Euclidean method, supporters of design-based or form-based codes contend that its use-based adversary is outdated and economically inefficient; they maintain that the character of a neighborhood can be maintained via physical characteristics, allowing more economic and social efficiency through a blend of building usages.