Zoning is intended to regulate the use of private land for the common good. It establishes that the interests of private property owners must be balanced against the interests of the public. As R. Robert Linowes and Don T. Allensworth have written, "zoning is the real power behind planning, and it is zoning that gives teeth to planning ideals and objectives. Planning as such cannot require that land be used in a particular manner, but zoning can."1
Zoning must serve a valid public purpose and be in accordance with an approved comprehensive plan. The same regulations must apply to all districts with similar zoning classifications. Zoning can show no discrimination or capricious intent and must not result in "taking" of a property (as described later in this chapter) or violation of other laws or constitutional conditions.
The purposes of zoning typically include:
1. Promoting and protecting public health, safety, and general welfare.
2. Protecting the character and stability of residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, and agricultural areas and promoting the orderly and beneficial development of such areas.
3. Providing adequate light, air, privacy, and convenience of access to property.
4. Regulating the intensity of uses of land and lot areas and determining the area of open spaces surrounding buildings and structures necessary to protect the public health.
5. Reducing congestion on public highways and streets.
6. Protecting against fire, explosion, noxious fumes and odors, heat, dust, smoke, glare, noise, vibration, radioactivity, and other nuisances.
7. Preventing overcrowding of land and undue concentration of structures.
8. Conserving the taxable value of land and buildings.
9. Providing for payment of fees for zoning permits and setting penalties for violations.
(1 The Politics of Land Use. Linowes and Allensworth.)
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