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The book really is a complete guide to zoning. A great primer for anyone starting on their first development or zoning project; but also helpful to those of us already working in the field who come across new and interesting challenges.
What makes this fabulous book unique is that rather than focusing just on the law of zoning or just on the politics of same, Merriam does both- and in language that a nonlawyer can understand. He also suggests other little payoffs, such as setting aside open space for a neighborhood. So the developer tries to appease them by widening the roads on its property, thus making that subdivision a scarier place to walk (and also reducing the amount of land available for housing).*The neighbors might be worried about density.
State and local laws typically require that an attempt to rezone property must be accompanied by some form of notice to neighbors- and so to get government approval, a developer must get neighbors' approval. *And sometimes, the developer has to just give something to neighborhood groups, essentially bribing them for permission to build. He writes not just about the basics of zoning procedure, but also about how to assemble experts and present your case in a way likely to persuade a zoning board or city council.In addition, Merriam's work contains some inadvertent clues as to why most American neighborhoods and suburbs are so sprawling and expensive.
So the developer has to reduce the units in its subdivision, thus reducing housing supply. And to get that approval, developers must often change their plans in ways that increase the price of housing, make neighborhoods less walkable, or both. For example:*The neighbors might be worried about traffic congestion.
For example, Merriam points out that he sometimes has bought neighborhood goodwill by offering to pay a neighborhood group's lawyers and experts. I suspect that at least some of these costs are passed on to home buyers.
This book is a great overview of zoning. If you already have a general understanding of zoning and its processes, then you already know everything in this book. It gives you the basics -- all of them, but it is definitely for people who know very little about zoning. If you are finding yourself in your first zoning battle, make this your first book. Whether or not you will absolutely love this book or find it a waste of money is dependent entirely on your level of knowledge and what you are looking for. This is perfect for those who are just learning about zoning or those who need to brush up.
The Complete Guide To Zoning: How Real Estate Owners and Developers Can Create and Preserve Property Value is a no-nonsense guide to understanding what zoning is and how to use it to protect one's property rights and interests. Zoning and Land-Use Law controls what can be done with land and how it can be developed; The Complete Guide To Zoning offers the lay reader a very short course in the law, the importance of knowing what one has, what one wants, and how to get it, the value of creating and leveraging relationships, when to reach out for support, preparing winning applications and making successful presentations, strategies for winning zoning battles, and much more. Chapters give equal focus to pursuing one's desire to develop land commercially, or the desire to see that adjoining lands to one's residential area are not developed commercially. Written in plain terms, The Complete Guide To Zoning is highly accessible regardless of the reader's legal background, and a "must-read" for property owners everywhere.
As the Director of Planning and Development for a mid sized city in CT for the last 16 years, I highly reccomend this book. All planners and developers should read it.
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