ABSTRACT

Before describing how one can guide a project through the local system of land use controls, it is important to have some understanding of the relationship between property and the public interest in the United States. Zoning, a giant leap in the extension of the police power, was approved in 1926 by the US Supreme Court in Ambler Realty v. the Village of Euclid. By the 1960s rigid zoning controls began to give way to more "flexible" development controls. Special permits is another category of techniques that allows individualized review and controls certain uses under terms specifically spelled out in the zoning ordinance. In using such flexible development review techniques, the practicing planner has much more to do than simply determining whether a proposed development is in compliance with existing ordinances and codes. Zoning is only part of the process called "planning." The practicing planner needs to understand how the land use system really works and why.