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
April 2014
Promoting Drought Resilience Through Plans and Codes
Effective mitigation of drought involves more than simply knowing what to expect. It involves the use of planning to determine precisely what the community is in a position to do to reduce those impacts prior to and during a drought. While planning cannot influence rainfall, it can influence consumption patterns, both over the long term and during drought. This issue highlights how drought mitigation plans and the codes that help implement these plans play important roles in fostering more sustainable water use and resilience to the impacts of drought.
Author Marilyn Hall, AICP, is the water conservation coordinator for the Unified Government of Athens–Clarke County, Georgia. Under her leadership the Athens–Clarke County Water Conservation Office earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2013 WaterSense Partner of the Year award.
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.
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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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