- Future Development Zones(also styled as Con-
tract Zones) lock up land for a future designated
purpose, subject to the terms of an agreement. - Incentive Zonesallows contracting rights – usually
in the form of increased floor space – in exchange for
providing other, usually amenity, benefits (for example
a creche in a city office block). - Up-zoning and Down-zoninginvolves changes in
the intensity of a zoning so as to increase or decrease
the use of land, the site coverage and or also the bulk
of allowable building on sites. Also known as Contract
Zoning and as the exercise of Density Exchange
Options.
GROWTH BOUNDARYis a legal ‘fence’ designated
around an urban area within which the land uses are
urban, and without which the land uses are rural. When
applied strictly, land uses and land valuations (and taxes)
switch from urban to rural at a growth boundary.
TRANSFERABLE DEVELOPMENT RIGHT(TDR)
also styled as Tradable Development Right/Credit; a
voluntary agreement brokered by a local government
authority to facilitate the transfer of a right to develop
(frequently airspace, but also the likes of coastal devel-
opment rights transferred inland) from one site to
another, sometimes kilometres away: hence a ‘sending’
site and a ‘receiving’ site. The ‘transfer’ can involve more,
or less, development at the ‘receiving’ site than was
traded in at the ‘sending’ site.
DEEMED TO COMPLY is a useful ‘performance
approach’ which allows flexibility in the application of
rules and standards; in effect ‘deeming’ a well-designed
and generally beneficial proposal’s approval by decreeing
that it is adequately ‘complying’.
WAIVERS(Dispensations and Variances) mostly indi-
cate the foregoing of a local government rule to the
specific benefit of, or to reduce the hardship for, a subject-
site. Waivers are agreed to without prejudice or estab-
lishing precedence.
AS OF RIGHTinvolves two general ‘freedoms’: the
‘right to develop’ and the ‘right to use’, along with other
specific categories of ‘right’ such as a ‘right to farm’.
Permitted Activities are a clearly understood form of
prescribed ‘right’.
PURCHASED DEVELOPMENT RIGHT (PDR)
involves the forward selling (purchasing) of rights to
urbanize, subdivide, harvest a forest, or mine for miner-
als (usually purchased from open area land holders).CONTROL OF EFFECTSindirectly constrains land-
use intensity, and site and building performance; and the
intensity of allowable waste disposal and other ‘effects’
upon land and environment. The ‘controls’ are usually
predicated on an ‘activities’ basis which allows a variety
of overlapping and intermingling ‘interests’ in a property.
These are regulated by means of ‘effects criteria’.BY-LAWan ordinance or code sanctioning what can or
cannot be done. By-laws are mostly restrictive in intent.
Although backed up with enforceable penalties they are
frequently ineffectual. Many by-laws are observed in the
breach, although others, such as building codes, are well
observed.EXCLUSIONARY COVENANTS are aimed at
excluding a particular type of user (persons?) from living
in or operating an activity in a specified area. It is usually
couched in terms of minima: lot sizes, expenditure per
unit, activity, density. ‘Exclusionary’ zoning – which is not
usually designated explicitly as such – is also counter-
reflected in the expression ‘inclusionary’ zoning. Walled
and gated residential enclaves (including condominia) are
the most usual form of exclusionary-inclusionary zoning.USER LEVIES(also known as Impact Fees) are up-front
charges or land set-asides, applied to a property devel-
oper (person or agency) to ensure that they meet the
cost of infrastructure hook-up and provisioning. These
levies are also applied to the recovery of up-grade costs
associated with access roading and utilities provisioning.DEVELOPMENT BONUSES(also Incentive Provi-
sioning). Discretionary privileges (greater floor space,
higher plot coverage) applied to specified sites for a
specified reason and purpose. The provision of services
and utilities to a project, by a local agency, as an induce-
ment to develop, is a variant.JOINT VENTURE PROCEDURES(also known as
Integrated Ventures and Development Trusts) involve the
pooling of expertise, money, property, by two or more
people or agencies over a specified term, and with the