Zoning . . . no not the twighlight zone.

 

Potential Buyer Pointing to a grassy hillside in the distance, surrounded by mountains and trees: "I want to buy an acre right THERE!"

Me: "You can purchase that parcel, however, you would have to buy the 1,000 acres that go with it."

Potential Buyer: "No, I just want THAT one!"

Me: "I'm sorry, but that is zoned agricultural 1000 acres, you can't divide it."

Potential Buyer: "What? Why? What is zoning??!"
While some readers might think this is a joke or not even understand what is going on in this conversation, this is an actual conversation I have had with a potential buyer before.  It was neither the first or the last conversation like it. 

Many people are not familiar with zoning.  Zoning can be defined as :

 "Zoning is a tool that most cities use to govern “uses” (e.g. residential, commercial, or industrial), the size of buildings, and how buildings relate to their surroundings, including other buildings, open spaces, and the street. In the U.S., zoning began as a tool to separate uses from one another, and in particular was used to separate more impactful uses (manufacturing) from more sensitive uses (residential)."1

The area where I live and work is mainly an agricultural area.  Mountains, hills and farmland surround our town centers creating an open and expansive feel.  Many people from out of the area, especially the nearby urban areas, like it and would love to move here.  However, we are in a "no-growth" area, and much of the zoning of surrounding properties is zoned agricultural.  These parcels minimum sizes are around 20 acres, and can be up to thousands with only one main residence and only one or two additional residences, no matter how big the parcel. This means that any one particular parcel in this zoning can be only a minimum of 20 acres, or 100 acres or 1000 acres depending upon the zoning.  To give this some perspective, an average size lot in urban areas is less than a quarter acre-roughly 10,000 square feet or less.  One full acre is 43,560 square feet, 20 acres is 871,200 square feet.  Were you able to subdivide it, it would make our area no different than any other urban center.

Some Examples of Zoning

Zoning is what designates areas for residential use (single family homes, condos or apartments), commercial use (businesses, restaurants and stores) or industrial use (manufacturing plants, mills, etc.).  Zoning affects people in many ways, not just what they can and cannot do with their property, but also how far they travel to go to work, to church or to the store.  It also decides how many homes are on their lot-do you live in a duplex or in a single family home?  The more people per parcel, the busier and more crowded it gets.  The more crowded the more cars there are, wider streets are needed, more street lights, etc. 

This however leads to a realization.  That people may not understand what zoning is, or how it is used or how it affects them.  Largely urban areas do not have much open space because most of their once open land was built on and divided long ago.  The governments decided what the uses of areas were going to be and their minimum lot sizes.  So, before many people ever arrived at an area, those decisions were made for them.  They most likely do not have to consider this in their real estate purchase.  However, people

in more rural areas have to consider zoning in their purchase.  As it will affect not only what they can do with a property but also how they use it.  

  It is always good to check out the zoning of a property before purchase.  Unlike residential areas, where most properties are clearly residential; industrial, agricultural or commercial areas can have all sorts of different zoning.  There are differences such as manufacturing, sales or even height restrictions on buildings and the types of businesses than can occupy a space.  

In an effort to keep open spaces, well, open, many municipalities have minimum lot sizes, like the one in our example.  This keeps the hills open for things like cattle grazing or crops which are important to many communities. Which, in turn, is why the gentleman couldn't buy just one lot, because if he could, so could everyone else, and in the end-he would just have one lot in  a sea of other homes, not on the nice open hillside.

The take away? Zoning is important, maybe more important than you realize.  It may not have an impact on your daily life, but it has impacted you in some way.  So next time you enjoy the beautiful scenery or small streets in a quaint town while on vacation or in your own town-remember-it probably all started with zoning.

 1 Definition from the city of Santa Monica planning and community development web page. https://www.smgov.net/Departments/PCD/Zoning/What-is-Zoning/