Zoning Rules!


Book Description

"Zoning has for a century enabled cities to chart their own course. It is a useful and popular institution, enabling homeowners to protect their main investment and provide safe neighborhoods. As home values have soared in recent years, however, this protection has accelerated to the degree that new housing development has become unreasonably difficult and costly. The widespread Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) syndrome is driven by voters’ excessive concern about their home values and creates barriers to growth that reach beyond individual communities. The barriers contribute to suburban sprawl, entrench income and racial segregation, retard regional immigration to the most productive cities, add to national wealth inequality, and slow the growth of the American economy. Some state, federal, and judicial interventions to control local zoning have done more harm than good. More effective approaches would moderate voters’ demand for local-land use regulation—by, for example, curtailing federal tax subsidies to owner-occupied housing"--Publisher's description.




Introduction to Zoning and Development Regulation


Book Description

Zoning is one of the most visible and important functions of local governments. Few issues will pack a hearing room more quickly than a controversial zoning case that may address questions such as: -Should multifamily or commercial development be allowed on this site? -Will this rezoning increase traffic congestion or lead to overcrowded schools? -Is there any way we can protect this historic neighborhood or these natural resources if this development is approved? -Will this zoning decision stifle economic development? -What will this do to my property values? Many critical zoning decisions such as these are made by citizens serving on government panels. These decisions can have a tremendous impact on landowners, their neighbors, and the future quality of an entire community. Introduction to Zoning and Development Regulation provides a clear, understandable explanation of zoning law for citizen board members and the public. It is an introduction for citizens new to these issues or a refresher for those who have been at the zoning business for some time. This is a useful overview of land use law that will be of interest to anyone interested in or affected by local zoning and development regulation. This revised version replaces Introduction to Zoning, Third Edition, 2007, and all previous editions. A free PDF download of the table of contents is available (https://www.sog.unc.edu/publications/books/introduction-zoning-and-development-regulation-fourth-edition!/details).




Zoning Law and Practice


Book Description

Revised volumes by Douglas Scott MacGregor, 2000-




Introduction to Zoning


Book Description




City Rules


Book Description

City Rules offers a challenge to students and professionals in urban planning, design, and policy to change the rules of city-building, using regulations to reinvigorate, rather than stifle, our communities. Emily Talen demonstrates that regulations are a primary detriment to the creation of a desirable urban form. While many contemporary codes encourage sprawl and even urban blight, that hasn't always been the case-and it shouldn't be in the future. Talen provides a visually rich history, showing how certain eras used rules to produce beautiful, walkable, and sustainable communities, while others created just the opposite. She makes complex regulations understandable, demystifying city rules like zoning and illustrating how written codes translate into real-world consequences. Most importantly, Talen proposes changes to these rules that will actually enhance communities' freedom to develop unique spaces.




Strong Towns


Book Description

A new way forward for sustainable quality of life in cities of all sizes Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he co-founded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem. Inside, you’ll learn why inducing growth and development has been the conventional response to urban financial struggles—and why it just doesn’t work. New development and high-risk investing don’t generate enough wealth to support itself, and cities continue to struggle. Read this book to find out how cities large and small can focus on bottom-up investments to minimize risk and maximize their ability to strengthen the community financially and improve citizens’ quality of life. Develop in-depth knowledge of the underlying logic behind the “traditional” search for never-ending urban growth Learn practical solutions for ameliorating financial struggles through low-risk investment and a grassroots focus Gain insights and tools that can stop the vicious cycle of budget shortfalls and unexpected downturns Become a part of the Strong Towns revolution by shifting the focus away from top-down growth toward rebuilding American prosperity Strong Towns acknowledges that there is a problem with the American approach to growth and shows community leaders a new way forward. The Strong Towns response is a revolution in how we assemble the places we live.




Zoned in the USA


Book Description

Why are American cities, suburbs, and towns so distinct? Compared to European cities, those in the United States are characterized by lower densities and greater distances; neat, geometric layouts; an abundance of green space; a greater level of social segregation reflected in space; and—perhaps most noticeably—a greater share of individual, single-family detached housing. In Zoned in the USA, Sonia A. Hirt argues that zoning laws are among the important but understudied reasons for the cross-continental differences.Hirt shows that rather than being imported from Europe, U.S. municipal zoning law was in fact an institution that quickly developed its own, distinctly American profile. A distinct spatial culture of individualism—founded on an ideal of separate, single-family residences apart from the dirt and turmoil of industrial and agricultural production—has driven much of municipal regulation, defined land-use, and, ultimately, shaped American life. Hirt explores municipal zoning from a comparative and international perspective, drawing on archival resources and contemporary land-use laws from England, Germany, France, Australia, Russia, Canada, and Japan to challenge assumptions about American cities and the laws that guide them.




Water Code


Book Description




Chapter 160D


Book Description

"Chapter 160D of the North Carolina General Statutes is the first major recodification and modernization of city and county development regulations since 1905. The endeavor was initiated by the Zoning and Land Use Section of the N.C. Bar Association in 2013 and emanated from the section's rewrite of the city and county board of adjustments statute earlier that year. This bill summary and its many footnotes are intended to help citizens and local governments understand and navigate these changes."--Page vii.