Chapter 20 (Planning and Zoning) Flashcards
Introduction
In a residential community located in a fashionable area, homes are meticulously landscaped with rose bushes and beautiful fountains.
It is a neighborhood of executives and their families.
Across the street from one of the fashionable homes is a small candy factory, and farther down the street is a soft-drink bottling company.
This is just one example of what happens when community planning and land-use control are absent.
History of Planning and Zoning
Planning and land-use control have been practiced in this country to varying degrees since the first European settlers arrived. During the colonial period, the British colonies enacted ordinances restricting slaughterhouses and gunpowder mills to the outskirts of the community. Later in the 1800s, cities established fire districts and building height restrictions.
Industrialization brought a decreased interest in planning and land use regulations. The philosophy of laissez-faire (French for “let alone”) prevailed among business and political leaders.
*Laissez-faire, a philosophy of noninterference by the government in private business affairs, advocated letting the owners of land and business fix the rules of competition.
Planning and growth management were largely ignored. Property owners used their land to produce the greatest private gain without regard to the impact on the community. As industrialization expanded, people left the farms for city jobs. Unorganized growth resulted.
In 1916, the first serious efforts were made to create and enforce zoning ordinances. The garment industry in New York City was about to expand into the exclusive Fifth Avenue district.
A zoning ordinance was enacted to protect Fifth Avenue property values by prohibiting all but specified property uses in that district. Other cities began to adopt zoning ordinances to create or protect local property values.
Many property owners objected to the introduction of zoning laws. Most of the objections were raised because of zoning ordinances that prohibited owners from using their land to generate profit or income without compensating them for the rights lost. In 1926, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that legally enacted zoning laws were constitutional.
This ruling gave powers of enforcement to municipalities that had enacted zoning laws for the purpose of regulating future growth.
These controls gave rise to city planning and growth management all across the nation.
Planning Goals
As part of the growth management process, city planning attempts to regulate city growth as required to achieve four basic goals:
- To plan future land uses that allow the highest and best use of the maximum number of properties
- To reduce the possibility that a particular type of land use may cause loss of value to neighboring properties
- To reduce present and future growth costs that must be borne by taxpayers
- To create an optimal social and economic environment as a result of community growth
Local Planning Agency
Florida counties and municipalities are required to maintain a comprehensive (master) plan.
Comprehensive plans include such elements as capital improvements, future land use, transportation, sanitary sewer, solid waste, and so forth.
The concurrency provision in Florida’s growth policy act requires on a state-wide basis that the infrastructure for sanitary sewers, potable (drinking) water, and waste treatment facilities be in place before new development is allowed.
Many communities have experienced complete curtailment of new construction because of a building moratorium until a new sewage treatment plant, for example, was completed.
Comprehensive (Master) Plan
Plans for the future physical development of a city, county, or region.
Concurrency
The provision in Florida’s Growth Policy Act that requires water and waste treatment facilities needed to support additional population be in place before new development is allowed.
Composition
Planning commissions are most effective when composed of members who represent all walks of life.
Members most often are not trained professional planners.
The overriding goal is to have representatives from a cross section of interests.
A planning commission composed entirely of developers, for example, could not possibly speak for all the people.
The homes, desires, and goals of all residents should be considered.
- Members of the planning commission are usually appointed (not elected) and serve in a voluntary, unpaid capacity.
- The primary legislative body of the city or the county is the appointing authority, normally a city council or a county commission.
Planning commissions vary in size, and the terms for which planning commissioners are appointed may vary from the terms of their colleagues.
This ensures a staggered rate of replacement and is designed to prevent any one appointing authority from selecting an entire planning commission.
*Planning commissioners are usually appointed for terms longer than the term of the appointing authority to reduce the commissioners’ obligation to any single political body.
This minimizes political influence within the planning body.
The planning commission or board serves as an advisory body to the elected city or county government.
As important as the planning function may be to the future welfare of a community, the commission is not the final authority in matters related to planning.
*The commission is responsible for planning, just as the police department is responsible for law enforcement, but the elected government must make the final decisions based on recommendations from subordinate agencies.
Authority
Three areas of responsibility for which city planning commissions are commonly delegated final authority are:
(1) subdivision plat approval,
(2) site plan approval, and
(3) sign control.
- Subdivision Plat Approval.
A developer planning to create a subdivision must submit a sub-division plat to the planning commission for approval.
A developer is not issued a building permit until final approval is granted by the planning commission.
When approval is received, the developer may proceed to record the plat in the public records and receive a building permit.
- Site Plan Approval.
The site plan serves the same function that a subdivision plat serves for a subdivision.
It is a detailed plan of how the project is to be developed, how traffic and parking will be dealt with, and what impact on neighboring properties may be expected.
This is an area in which the expertise of the planning commission’s support staff can be of great assistance.
Reviewing and checking site plan proposals requires painstaking attention to detail and a well-rounded background of information.
This ensures compliance with all physical, economic, and environmental requirements.
- Sign Control.
More and more cities are exercising control over signs.
The primary aims of sign control are to minimize distraction to motorists and to eliminate actual safety hazards created by signs at blind corners, lighted signs that glare into the eyes of drivers at night, and the like.
Any aesthetic improvement resulting from sign control is a welcomed by-product.
Support Staff
While appointed members of the commission may be experts in their own fields, they often are not urban planning experts.
The planning commission’s function is to make policy recommendations regarding the type of city it feels that citizens want in the future.
It sets goals and provides residents with a number of feasible alternative plans for achieving those goals.
*The job of collecting, sorting, analyzing, and reporting is handled by the staff of the planning commission.
The planning commission support staff is composed of full-time city or county employees.
Staff members are normally college- or university-trained planners.
They have learned how to evaluate the economic base of a city.
They know the most productive sources of information regarding population, proper land uses, and support requirements for future growth. The planning support staff collects and refines the raw data to produce the basic studies needed to develop a flexible, comprehensive plan for future growth.
Basic Background Studies
Before the goals, objectives, and policies can be finalized, the planning commission and its support staff must have a good idea of what has happened in the past, what the present situation is, and what projections indicate for the future.
Six types of background studies are used by planners (see below):
- Population background studies
- Area economic base studies
- Existing land-use studies
- Physiographic studies
- Recreation and community facilities studies
- Thoroughfare studies
Population Background Studies
The population and its geographic distribution are the basic determinants of comprehensive planning.
Population studies are the most basic and important of all planning studies.
These studies identify the following:
- The composition of the population;
- The number of households and their approximate incomes; and
- The numbers and locations of different ethnic groups, occupations of residents, and educational levels.
With this demographic information, predictions can be made for the future.
*In Florida, predictions normally are limited to periods of 5 to 10 years into the future.
In states where growth is slow, the planning predictions may be projected for 15 to 20 years into the future.
*Population studies give planners an indication of the number of new households expected to move into an area.
This information is of great assistance in estimating the cost of social services for a larger, and in some cases older, population.
Planners can alert cities and counties to the number of additional police officers, firefighters, teachers, medical facilities, and the like that will be required to handle the new residents.
Economic Base Studies
- Economic base studies analyze the effect of base-industry employment in the area.
- Base industries are those industries that attract outside money to the area, such as film making, fertilizer plants, and the citrus industry.
- Service industries are those such as grocery stores, barber shops, and retail stores, whose customers are primarily local residents.
These industries keep money already in the area circulating but attract little outside money to the area. These studies also will reveal whether an area is principally tourist-oriented, industrial, commercial, educational, or agricultural in character.
Perhaps the area can boast of several economic activities.
The more diversified the economic base, the more stable the area economy tends to be.
This contributes to growth and stable property values.
Existing Land-Use Studies
To plan for future land use, the planning commission takes an inventory of all public and private land uses.
The commission does a complete survey of land uses, with detailed maps plotting each separate land parcel.
Individual lots and tracts can be identified on land-use maps with colors or codes to indicate the present use of the land.
Once completed, existing land-use patterns dictate, to a great degree, the location of future land uses.
Generally, professional planners use five basic land-use categories:
(1) residential,
(2) commercial,
(3) industrial,
(4) agricultural, and
(5) special use. Basic land-use classifications are divided further into subcategories.
For example, a county might use:
residential: single-family, one-family to four-family, multifamily;
commercial: neighborhood shopping, community business, professional offices, shopping center, central business district;
industrial: component assembly, light manufacturing, heavy industry, warehousing; and
special use: public schools, churches, recreational areas (community parks and national parks).
Unfortunately, there is no uniform standard of land-use classification that applies to all parts of the state. Each planning commission or zoning authority may establish any system desired to prevent encroachment of incompatible uses.
Once the land-use studies are complete and all the current uses of individual parcels are accounted for, it is a relatively simple matter to determine the number of acres being used for each classification.
This information can then be coordinated with results of the population studies to develop a preliminary land-use plan for the future.
Physiographic Studies
Physiographic studies help avoid unexpected problems with soil conditions: drainage, soil percolation, and load-bearing capacity.
They describe the physical structure of the land.
All the various soil types are cataloged and then plotted on a map.
Each soil type is coded to indicate recommended usage. For example, some soil types require floating foundations or special pilings.
Areas where these types of soil conditions are found are not suitable for high-rise buildings.
Some soils do not drain well, necessitating special storm drainage systems.
Physiographic studies with accompanying maps are a factor in determining the highest and best use of specific tracts of land.
Recreation and Community Facilities Studies
These studies, which should be coordinated with the population studies, plan for public and private recreation areas.
Parks, playgrounds, beaches, and municipal facilities are identified and plotted on a map.
A relationship then can be established to indicate the population number and type to be served.
When the existing community facilities are located and plotted, plans can be made for the location of appropriate similar facilities in those areas marked for future growth.
Projections can be made for the number and location of additional parks, playgrounds, and community recreational facilities needed to serve the planned residential areas.
Thoroughfare Studies
*Thoroughfare studies are designed to identify existing and projected traffic circulation systems.
They are closely related to population and economic studies. Federal and state laws require that cities of 50,000 people or more do urban area thoroughfare studies to reflect present and future transportation networks.
Because cities of that size have an effective market area much larger than that contained within the city limits, these studies must include the surrounding urban areas, which are considered part of the metropolitan market area.
*Thoroughfare studies are normally a joint venture involving city, county, and state transportation departments and regional planning commissions.
Such studies must anticipate requirements for ingress and egress and traffic flow to future residential and commercial areas that may be still in the planning stage.
They also must anticipate increased amounts of roadway and pedestrian traffic generated by new residents.
In addition, they must consider the transportation requirements of neighboring cities and counties.
Because most counties share transportation problems with their neighbors, they share the need for joint planning efforts.
