In a continuation of my article from last month, I will talk some specifics about how your town’s zoning and subdivision regulations can provide for and affect the residential (housing) make up of your town. In the early 20th century, communities undertook efforts to protect residential areas from the expanding presence of manufacturing and industrial …
How to Build a Neighborhood(?) Part 2 “Traditional” Read More »
How to build a neighborhood. How to build a neighborhood? These are the same words but the question mark changes the meaning. Why do I bring up this fine point of grammar? Because it has a serious meaning to the work of your town’s planning and zoning commission pertaining to the development of new residential …
Zoning regulations allow our towns to guide growth and development. When created and used in a practical, common sense manner, they can balance the interests of individual property owners and of the whole community regarding the present and future potential uses of land. But, what does one do when zoning regulations unfairly limit a landowner …
Government is good at making rules. It is an easy thing to do. It is also tricky thing to do. Laws can take on their own lives. They can populate faster than rabbits. They can expand into things that may not be related to their original intent. They can become outdated, burdensome and even unfair …
In my August 27th article (Water, Water, Everywhere…), I talked about what happens to water from its sources, through its use by all of us in our daily lives, and to its return to the land. Land use activities have varying degrees of impacts upon the land itself and thus upon water. This occurs not …
How you do something is just as important as what you do. As a planning and zoning commissioner, I heed these words of wisdom. The courts will otherwise uphold a planning and zoning commission’s decision if the zoning regulations as they exist at the time of the decision were followed fully, the process was fair …
One of the fundamental functions of your town’s planning and zoning commission is to guide your town’s growth and the effects it has on the many seen and unseen aspects of your community. Economic development is a part of this growth. This is a BIG topic. It is also in these economic times a most …
Land use zoning regulations may seem abstract, but they are in fact very much real … and all around you. Your town uses these hands-on tools to achieve the goals of your community’s master planning documents, such as a Plan of Conservation and Development, to guide future growth. It all impacts the private land you …
Revisiting the Basics of Planning and Zoning in Your Town Part 2 Read More »
Common questions I am asked about what I do on Woodstock’s Planning and Zoning Commission are “why are there zoning regulations?”, “what are they all about?”, and “what is municipal land use planning?”. You are continuously affected by these issues each and every day where you live, work, and travel. I am thankful to the …
Revisiting the Basics of Planning and Zoning in Your Town Part 1 Read More »
Multitasking. That is what is required when deciding upon land use applications, writing zoning/subdivision regulations and updating municipal planning documents. There are many things of varying types to review at the same time. Looking at an item individually may be easy to do, but it does not always show what’s around you because each item …