Also known as: zoning ordinances · zoning law · land-use ordinance
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A municipal regulation that divides land within a city into districts and restricts the uses to which land in each district may be put. The regulation typically also controls building height, lot coverage, and density. Such an ordinance is valid when the classification bears a substantial relation to public health, safety, morals, or general welfare, but it is invalid when applied arbitrarily or without that relation.
Zeke Zola applied for a special-use permit to open a group home for adults with intellectual disabilities in a residential zone. The city council denied the permit after neighbors expressed fears tied solely to the residents' mental condition. A court reviewing the denial finds no legitimate governmental interest and holds the action violates equal protection.
Zion Zhao owns a single parcel surrounded by single-family homes. He petitions the city council to rezone only his lot for a commercial gas station. The council approves the change without showing any public purpose beyond benefiting Zhao. A court invalidates the amendment as arbitrary spot zoning lacking a substantial relation to public welfare.
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Zoya Zamorano owns land on one side of a newly drawn zoning boundary that prohibits all commercial use. The same type of land across the line permits retail development. Because the boundary bears no substantial relation to health or safety and arbitrarily deprives Zoya of beneficial use, a court declares the classification invalid as applied.
Zara Zuberi challenges a new city ordinance that places her parcel in a residential district and bars industrial operations. The ordinance divides the entire municipality into use districts with classifications that reasonably advance public health and safety. A court upholds the ordinance as a valid exercise of police power.
Zuri Zuberi and five college friends rent a house in a zone limited to traditional family units. The city enforces the ordinance against them but allows larger extended families. A court sustains the restriction under rational basis review because it promotes a preferred residential character.
Zimmerman Steel's employee housing policy allows a grandmother to live with her grandchildren in a single-family zone. The city cites the ordinance and orders her to leave because the children are not her direct descendants under the defined family unit. A court strikes down the application as violating substantive due process by intruding on family autonomy.
The ordinance violates equal protection when the denial rests solely on prejudice against persons with intellectual disabilities. Even under rational basis review the government must advance a legitimate interest rather than mere bias.
A rezoning amendment is invalid when it singles out one parcel or small area for a use inconsistent with surrounding zones and lacks a substantial relation to public health, safety, morals, or general welfare.
The classification is invalid when it bears no substantial relation to public health, safety, or welfare and arbitrarily deprives the owner of the beneficial use of the property.
Such an ordinance survives rational basis review when it promotes a preferred residential environment and quiet family character, but it fails when it intrudes on extended family living arrangements protected by substantive due process.
…assumption of power is not capable of precise delimitation. It varies with circumstances and conditions. A regulatory zoning ordinance, which would be clearly valid as applied to the great cities, might be clearly invalid as applied to rural communities. In solving doubts, the maxim sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas ,…