Zoning and Growth Management

Question 1

Floating Zoning

Answer 1

Zoning district that gives conditions which must be met before that zoning district can be approved for an existing piece of land. Rather than being placed on the zoning map, the floating zone is simply written as an amendment in the zoning ordinance. Thus, the zone “floats” until a development application is approved

Question 2

Overlay Zones

Answer 2

Zoning district which is applied over one or more previously established zoning districts, establishing additional or stricter standards and criteria. Ie. Historic district or waterfront district

Question 3

Incentive Zoning

Answer 3

Allows a developer to develop in a way that ordinarily would not be permitted in exchange for a public benefit that would otherwise not be required. For example, a developer may provide schools, parks, open space, plazas, low-income housing, or money, in exchange for greater flexibility in required building setbacks, floor heights, lot area, parking requirements, number of dwellings, and other minimum standards.

Question 4

Performance Zoning

Answer 4

An alternative to the traditional, conventional zoning method, performance standards regulate development by setting the desired goals to be achieved by regulation rather than regulating how those community goals are met. Instead of restricting specific uses on a property, performance requirements allow any use that meets the set standard.

Question 5

Unified Development Ordinance

Answer 5

UDO - combines traditional zoning and subdivision regulations, along with other desired city regulations, such as design guidelines, sign regulations, and floodplain and stormwater management, into one document. Streamline and coordinate the development process of permits and approvals for development projects by removing inconsistencies and eliminating outdated policies.

Question 6

Transfer of Development Rights

Answer 6

TDR - market tool communities can use to achieve land preservation. The preservation is accomplished by allowing one landowner to sever her development rights in exchange for compensation from another landowner who wants her development rights to increase.

Question 7

Inclusionary Zoning

Answer 7

Requires developers to make a percentage of housing units in new residential developments affordable to low income households. The concept is the same as incentive zoning.

Question 8

Tax Increment Financing

Answer 8

TIF - Creates a redevelopment district in which infrastructure improvements and/or project developments are financed based upon an anticipated future increase in property values. Any increase in tax revenue through increase in property value will accrue to the redevelopment authority. The TIF district is created for a set time period, usually between 5 and 30 years, and once the time period ends, the increase in revenue from the property value increase reverts to the baseline taxing structure.

Question 9

Adequate Public Finance Ordinances

Answer 9

APFO - growth management tool communities use to help coordinate the timing and provision of public infrastructure with new development. Also known as concurrency. Allows the government to delay new development projects by prohibiting the issuance of development permits if existing government services, such as water, sewer, roads, schools, fire, police, etc., cannot support the development.

Question 10

Impact Fees

Answer 10

Growth management tool used to help pay for the expansion of public infrastructure by requiring developers to pay their proportionate share of the costs.

Question 11

Zoning Administration

Answer 11

Zoning is ideally administered with three components: the zoning map, the zoning text, and the comprehensive plan. Those three components should be developed in the reverse order just stated with the comprehensive plan coming first.

Question 12

Comprehensive Plan

Answer 12

Citizen input component of zoning administration

Question 13

Zoning Text

Answer 13

Establish the different zones applicable in
the community and the uses allowable in each zone either by right or with a conditional use
permit. Includes use table.

Question 14

Euclidean Zoning

Answer 14

This type of regulation places the most protection and restrictions on residential land uses, less on commercial and virtually none on industrial uses. This concept places the most restrictive zoning category, single family residential, at the top of the pyramid. Each more intensive land use is on the next level down with industrial use being the base of the pyramid

Question 15

Cumulative Zoning

Answer 15

Single Family Residential as most restrictive but each successively more intense zoning category — multifamily, commercial, and industrial — allow all the uses from the previous zones

Question 16

Zoning Map

Answer 16

Color-coded map that shows which types of land uses are allowable where.

Question 17

Planning & Zoning Commission

Answer 17

Appointed by City prior to the adoption of zoning. A city can have a separate zoning’ commission and planning commission, but more often they are a combined. They issue recommendations in matters of
zoning and long-range planning. They also review subdivision plats and make recommendations to the governing body or render final approval if delegated to do so.

Question 18

Zoning Board of Adjustments

Answer 18

Quasi-judicial board that serves three primary purposes. It hears appeals to the staff’s administration of the zoning ordinance, conducts hearings on special exceptions to the ordinance, and can grant variances to the zoning ordinance where strict application will result in undue hardship to a property owner due to special circumstances. This board is generally made up of appointees by the City Council members and the Mayor

Question 19

Conditional Use Permits

Answer 19

When a use is marginally acceptable in a zone it can be permitted. Example is bars in commercial zone. Can be issued in one of two ways: to run with the land or to run with ownership. If the permit runs with ownership, it offers the city an opportunity to review the circumstances should ownership change.

Question 20

Planned Unit Development

Answer 20

PUD - Typically large development allowing a number of different land uses in the area. Can be used with Floating Zones.

Question 21

Urban Growth Boundary

Answer 21

Absolute limit on what land can be developed

Question 22

Cluster Zoning

Answer 22

Zoning that specifies housing density for an entire area overall, leaving a developer free to use some space for high-density housing such as apartments or garden homes, and other space for low-density estate-sized lots.