Land Use and Zoning Law: A Comprehensive Guide

84 questions on land use and zoning law, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Can a city eliminate a nonconforming use through amortization?
• Can a landowner win a substantive due process claim against a zoning decision?
• Can a special use permit be denied because neighbors object?
• Can vague special-use-permit standards be challenged?
• Does buying land with knowledge of the zoning make a hardship self-created?
• Does Chevron deference apply to a zoning board's interpretation of its ordinance?
• Does NEPA apply to a local zoning decision?
• Does Nollan/Dolan apply to demands for money?
• Does Sheetz make all impact fees unconstitutional?
• Do impact fees require statutory authority?
• How are ambiguities in a zoning ordinance construed?
• How broadly do courts read "public use" in eminent domain?
• How do area variances and use variances compare?
• How do dedications, fees in lieu, and impact fees differ?
• How do equal protection claims work in zoning cases?
• How does a planned unit development work?
• How does a special use permit differ from a variance?
• How does federal law constrain local regulation of wireless facilities?
• How does subdivision regulation differ from zoning?
• How does the Fair Housing Act reach zoning decisions?
• How does the FHA's reasonable accommodation requirement apply to group homes?
• How does the First Amendment limit sign regulation?
• How do experienced land use lawyers actually win?
• How do you analyze a package of development conditions under Nollan and Dolan?
• How do you diagnose whether a project fits the zoning?
• How do you preserve an exactions challenge without blowing up the project?
• How is exclusionary zoning challenged?
• How is zoning actually enforced?
• How may a city regulate the location of adult businesses?
• Is a comprehensive plan legally binding on a zoning decision?
• Is a development moratorium a taking?
• Is a site-specific rezoning legislative or quasi-judicial?
• Is the Agins "substantially advances" test still good law?
• What are the four channels of takings doctrine?
• What are the four traps that kill variance applications?
• What are the Penn Central factors?
• What are the two halves of a zoning code?
• What are the two most-forgotten features of Euclid?
• What are the ways to change the zoning when the use table doesn't accommodate a project?
• What counts as a per se physical taking?
• What did Knick v. Township of Scott change about takings ripeness?
• What did Sheetz v. County of El Dorado decide?
• What did Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty decide?
• What dimensional standards does a zoning bulk schedule typically impose?
• What does a subdivision ordinance typically require?
• What does City of Cleburne teach about zoning decisions driven by neighbor hostility?
• What does RLUIPA's substantial burden provision require?
• What does the full arc of a difficult entitlement look like?
• What does the Nollan/Dolan doctrine not reach?
• What do the letters in a zoning use table mean?
• What is a class-of-one equal protection claim in land use?
• What is a legal nonconforming use?
• What is a Lucas categorical taking?
• What is an overlay district and how does it differ from a floating zone?
• What is a protest petition and why does it matter?
• What is a zoning variance?
• What is CEQA and why does it matter more than NEPA for local projects?
• What is RLUIPA's equal terms provision and why is it the easiest to win?
• What is spot zoning?
• What is the difference between abandonment and discontinuance of a nonconforming use?
• What is the difference between a Euclidean code and a form-based code?
• What is the difference between contract zoning and conditional zoning?
• What is the difference between exhaustion and finality in land use review?
• What is the essential nexus requirement from Nollan?
• What is the parcel-as-a-whole rule?
• What is the pending ordinance doctrine?
• What is the police power and why does it matter in zoning?
• What is the practical ripeness playbook for a federal takings claim?
• What is the rational nexus test for impact fees?
• What is the rough proportionality requirement from Dolan?
• What is the shortest and most dangerous deadline in land use litigation?
• What is the standard for an area variance?
• What is the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act and why does it still matter?
• What is the zoning trap in commercial leasing?
• What limits did Inclusive Communities place on FHA disparate-impact claims?
• What must an applicant prove to obtain a use variance?
• What ripeness requirements survive Knick?
• What standards of review apply to different land use decisions?
• When do a developer's rights vest against a mid-stream zoning change?
• When does procedural due process attach to a land use permit?
• Where are land use cases actually won?
• Why can't land use law be applied the same way across state lines?
• Why does it matter whether a land use decision is legislative or quasi-judicial?
• Why does Lucas rarely win?