MODULE-4 Land Use Planning

Conventional Regulatory Techniques

Zoning for Resource Protection

Zoning ordinances have been used throughout the country to segregate different and possibly conflicting activities into separate districts or "zones" of a community. Ordinances regulate each district for: types of land uses allowed; development densities; height, bulk, and placement of structures; amount and design of parking; and other land-use controls that are specific to the area. Zoning ordinances provide a set of procedures for administering and enforcing its regulations, along with a map or series of maps outlining a community's zoning district boundaries. The following are several zoning techniques that may be used to protect Washington's water resources:

  • Prohibition of Various Land Uses
  • Special Use Permitting
  • Growth Controls/Timing
  • Performance Standards
  • Large Lot Zoning

In addition to these techniques, there are numerous smart growth strategies that can be applied to land use management for protection of drinking water supplies such as the use of Overlay Water Resource Protection Districts, Transfer of Development Rights, Low Impact Development and Open Space Residential Design. These strategies are covered in Module 5.

Prohibition of Various Land Uses

Through zoning, communities can prohibit certain land uses within sensitive water resource areas, like Wellhead Protection Areas. Land uses that have higher risks of contamination, such as gas stations, sewage treatment plants, landfills, or others involving the use, storage, and disposal of toxic and/or hazardous materials can be directed away from delineated water resource protection areas. This is the first step toward the development of a comprehensive water resource protection strategy.

Special Use Permitting

Zoning laws in Washington list "special uses" which, because of their special impact or unique characteristics, can have a substantial adverse impact upon or be incompatible with other uses of land. This impact often cannot be determined in advance of the use being proposed for a particular location. Such uses may be allowed to locate within given zoning districts only through the review process of the special use permit. County and city zoning laws provide general and specific development standards for special uses and includes a review process that will evaluate the location, scale, compatibility with rural character and development characteristics of special uses and their impact on adjacent properties and the community as a whole.

Special Use Permit review is available to assist county and city governments in making decisions regarding land uses that can impact neighbors, neighborhoods, community character, the environment, and the local economy. Historically, Special Use Permits are often associated with a more restrictive review process for areas such as flood plains and aquifer protection zones. Specific uses can also be singled out for higher levels of review such as industrial/commercial uses of a certain scale. If applied strictly, the Special Use Permit process can be used effectively to regulate uses and structures that may threaten water quality. For example, many communities use the Special Use Permitting process to prohibit underground storage tanks or limit lawn fertilizer use within watershed or groundwater recharge areas.

More recently, the Special Use Permit process is being used in a more development-friendly manner to help smart growth/smart energy implementation by enabling innovative approaches, allowing flexibility, encouraging partnership between the community and the developer, providing incentives, and requiring specific design standards. Special Use Permits can also be used to allow for the redevelopment of pre-existing, non-conforming uses in a way that encourages infill and adds a favorable or needed use to an area.

Growth Controls/Timing

Growth controls are techniques that are used to slow or guide a community's growth, ideally in concert with its ability to "support" growth. The term "support" has been broadly defined, and can include issues ranging from a community or town's physical and financial ability to provide public facilities (roads, water, sewer, schools and public safety) to its ability to retain its once rural, historic character. Growth controls vary in their application and have included outright moratoria to limitations on numbers of building permits issued in any twelve month period.

Regulatory Performance Standards

Regulatory performance standards are based on the assumption that any given resource has a threshold, or "carrying capacity", beyond which the resource's ability to function deteriorates to unacceptable levels. Performance controls assume that most uses are allowable within a designated area provided that the uses do not and will not cumulatively overload the resources. A good example of a performance standard is one designed to protect surface water quality by setting a critical threshold for a contaminant, such as a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). Those land uses which will cause the threshold to be exceeded in the water body are not allowed.

Large Lot Zoning

Large lot zoning has limited value in protecting water resources. However, if employed sparingly, it can attempt to limit water resource degradation by reducing the number of buildings in rural areas; and thus, decrease septic systems and other associated threats within a protection area. However, it is important to note that large lot zoning can inadvertently encourage an increase in impervious surface area and sprawl leading to increased vehicle trips and stormwater runoff.

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