Zoning Practice
Zoning Practice helps guide you as you write and administer smart development codes.
It's a fact. The zoning problem you're struggling with today has probably already been solved by somebody else. But how can you find out what's working without spending a lot of your valuable time?
Zoning Practice isn't just an interesting read. It's a toolbox chock full of information geared to inform and inspire, and to implement by planners for the purpose of smarter land-use practice.
Current Issues
March 2014
Zoning for Small-Scale Alcohol Production: Making Space for Brewpubs, Microbreweries, Microwineries, and Microdistilleries
In communities across the country, beer titans are facing stiff competition from a host of locally owned and operated craft breweries. Meanwhile, there is parallel growth in craft distilleries and small-volume wineries. Historically, few communities have used zoning to draw distinctions between alcohol production facilities of different types and sizes. More recently, though, numerous localities have added provisions to their zoning codes that acknowledge the variety of alcohol producers. This issue highlights why the growth in small-scale alcohol production may merit zoning changes and summarizes how communities have amended their codes to add definitions, use permissions, and, in some cases, additional standards to sanction brewpubs and microproducers.
Author David Morley, AICP, is a senior research associate with the American Planning Association, as well as APA's Planning Advisory Service (PAS) coordinator and coeditor of Zoning Practice.
February 2014
Development Review as Economic Development
Development review is more than just a series of perfunctory steps to run a project through prior to approval. Done well, it is an economic development tool for a community to attract and secure desirable development, implement plans, and add to the local tax base. Conversely, an unpredictable development approval process can lead to difficulty in implementing plans and create the impression that a community is not a good place to do business. This issue offers suggestions for planners and public officials to help them audit development review processes with an eye toward improving predictability, emphasizing open and continuous communication, and, ultimately, adding value to their communities.
Author Michael Blue, FAICP, is a Principal with Teska Associates of Evanston, Illinois, a firm providing public and private sector clients with services related to planning, landscape architecture, site design, economic development, and community engagement.
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Zoning Practice Back Issues
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Share Your Expertise!
The editors of Zoning Practice welcome proposals from outside contributors, including those who may be writing for the publication for the first time. Contributors need not be professional planners, but they should have superior knowledge of a subject of substantial potential interest to Zoning Practice subscribers. We are especially eager to hear from potential authors with expertise on the following topics:
• Using development regulations to manage noise in mixed-use districts
• Visitability and housing for the aging
• Regulating short-term rentals
• Using zoning to promote walkable, mixed-use districts
• Zoning for healthy communities
• Hydraulic fracturing (aka "fracking") and land-use regulation
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Zoning Practice makes it possible for subscribers to ask questions of current authors about their articles. Authors write answers that will be posted on this website.
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