Zoning
Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty
– comprehensive zoning that controls uses of land is CONSTITUTIONAL
– OK for cities to use police power to plan for future and promote general welfare
– Private property rights subject to government regulation and planning
Traditional Euclidean Zoning:
– What it is:
o Comprehensive plan, then develop zoning map, zoning code (Map and Code become the law)
o Carves up community into zoning districts—commercial, residential, industrial…
§ Number of zones is unlimited!!
o Separates different (incompatible?) land uses
§ Regulates USES not ownership
– Purposes of Zoning: Use of police powerà to protect health, safety, morals
o Protect Property Values
§ Makes affordable housing ILLEGAL- keeps out the poor people (zoning out he “riff raff”)
§ Theory is that buyers will not pay as much for a house if the neighbors have a bass boat in the driveway and a tent on the lawn
§ SCOTUS has constitutionalized class exclusion here—“Character of the Neighborhood”
o Traffic Safety
o Increase Tax Base
§ Zoning and rezoning to encourage COMMERCIAL uses
o Promote Public Morality
§ Ex: liquor stores and porn theaters have to be a certain distance from churches and schools
– CAN’T USE ZONING TO:
o Regulate OWNER of the land (only USES of the land)
o Depress market value prior to appropriation- can’t downzone to lower the cost to the city to pay just compensation
o Grant Economic Favors—has to further GENERAL WELFARE
o Euclidean Zoning was supposed to be a static system—but this is NOT realistic!! Change is inevitable… SO:
§ FORMS OF RELIEF:
· Rezoning
· Variances
· Special Permits
§ Allowed Uses
§ Accessory Uses
§ Specially Permitted Uses
Framework of Traditional Euclidean Zoning:
– city council can adopt plan, zoning map breaks this down into districts, zoning code sets regulations for use of land within that district
– Planning Commission- holds hearings on proposed rezonings and applications for subdivision
o May make final decisions on subdivision applications (can be appealed to Ct of general jurisdiction)
– Board of Zoning Appeals- once a decision is made by these guys, you can sue them in court
height, bulk & setback restrictions
flexibility & conditional zoning
Planned Unit Developments
Traditional Euclidean Zoning
Modern Zoning Codes
– promote and protect low-density detached single-family homes
– separation of different uses
– Protect residential neighborhoods!
– Revitalize Urban Core Areas
– Address Traffic and environmental issues related to sprawl
Impact Analysis
LOTS OF VOCAB!
Growth management
Economic Development
What KIND of development do you want?
How much development do you want?
Where?
How fast?
Infrastructure: water, sewers, electricity
Transportation
Regional Concerns
Ultimately: ALL of these concerns are REGIONAL CONCERNS
Urban Sprawl
– 2 ways to grow- up or outà sprawl is growing OUT (this is what we do here in the US)
o Further and further away from the urban core, characterized by low-density single-family development
o Dynamic of sprawlàurban footprint grows at FIVE TIMES the rate of population growth
– Dominance of automobile has created “hypersprawl”
– “Pod Development”
Causes of Sprawl:
Costs of Sprawl
Private Market Demand
– Americans prefer to live in single-family homes with yardà America= rich society: we can afford to live in the ‘burbs!
– Cheap land in the ‘burbs, cheap bldg materials
Public Policies and Subsidies
– tax breaks for mortgage payments, protect capital gains on home sale profits
– VA, FHA mortgage loan guarantees that stimulate availability of financing
– Fed Reserve: function= keep economy going—econ supported by resid. construction and sprawl!
Local Tax & Fiscal Policies
– residential real estate taxes don’t pay for the needs of the people who live there- the more people a city has, the faster it will go bankrupt!
– SO- cities downzone the people out to get more tax revenues from commercial zoning—BUT people have to go somewhere… they go further out!
Road Improvements
– better roads create an incentive to live further and further out—facilitates sprawl
– London’s sprawl control= no more $ for roads
– US spends $200M a day on rd constr. & maint!!
Local Zoning Controls
– Euclidean zoning requires sprawl: zoning low density means only a certain number of people can live there and that high density uses are ILLEGAL- zoning low density pushes people further from urban core (more people… and they have to live somewhere!)
– Separation of Uses: uses are so separated that you have to get in your car to go anywhere, end product is rampant sprawl
Local Growth Management
– If you control development in your town/city/neighborhood (ex: Boulder) promotes sprawl because that development WILL GO FURTHER OU
ng, has to build something else too
– usually there is a schedule of impact fees or dedication based on the linkage (ex: if you’re building a residential neighborhood, have to build the roads to get there)
– exaction has to be linked to the problem the developer is creating
– put conditions on the development to mitigate the problem
Mitigationà if a developer who will cause adverse environmental impact, he is required to counterbalance it by providing equivalent benefit (ex: if destroying a wetland, have to create a wetland somewhere else)
power of local govts to establish growth mgmt programs
– const limits
Regional Planning
– this is the only logical way to do growth management, but almost no one does it!! 9only Portland, and even their “boundary” doesn’t seem truly serious
– can achieve this only through intergovernmental agreements—have to have cooperation (see Ft. Collins)
Moratoria & Interim controls
– Tahoe-Sierra case—interim moratorium was NOT a taking!
o Not a taking as long as it’s TEMPORARY—even in Tahoe-Sierra (where the moratorium was for over 2 years) it was considered “temporary”
Exclusionary Zoning
Exclusionary Zoning: LULUs (Locally Unwanted Land Uses)
– implemented to increase or preserve property values!
– BUT—can’t zone LULUS out entirely, can’t discriminate against the poor
Impediments to Exclusionary Zoning:
– FEDERAL PREEMPTION:
o Any federal instrumentality’s land will be absolutely immune from local and state regulation (parks service, post offices…)
§ BUT- some statutes say that the parcel will be subject to local zoning or that deference will be paid to local zoning—we will ALLOW local zoning
– STATE PREEMPTION: may preempt local zoning!!
o If state statute says you’re subject to local zoning, then you’re subject to local zoning
o State Land Uses:
§ State prisons, uses by state instrumentality (office building for part of state govt)
o State Constitution
§ 1st Amend
§ Due Process
o State Statutes
