Zoning & Platting
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One of the fundamental things you need to do is evaluate the existing zoning on the land you are considering for your development.
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Looking Up the Existing Zoning
The commercial broker listing the property for sale will usually include the current zoning with the listing, but it is your responsibility to validate this zoning with the city. You also need to confirm that the intended use of the land for your project is permitted per the land's zoning designation, as listed in the city's zoning ordinance.
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Most cities have an interactive geographic information system (GIS) map where you can look up the zoning designation for a particular piece of land. Those GIS maps usually come with a zoning map overlay. If you click to show that map overlay, you will then usually see all the different zoning designations shown on the city map in different colors, with each color representing a different zoning designation. Simply find your piece of land on the map and make note of the zoning designation. Below is a screenshot example of a zoning map in Hamilton, OH. You can see that when I click on the portion of land that I am interested in confirming the zoning, I can see that the zoning designation is "B-2."
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To continue the example, if I were looking to develop a medical clinic in the retail shopping center shown above, with zoning designation B-2, I would then go to the City of Hamilton's zoning ordinance and look up the chart of permitted uses, which lists the permitted uses for each zoning designation. Below is a screenshot of that permitted use chart
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As you can see from the above chart, a medical clinic is permitted in the B-2 zoning designation. This means the right to develop the intended medical clinic in this area is in place.
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If the zoning of the land you are evaluating does not allow for your intended use, you can either look for another location, or you can attempt to re-zone the land.
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Conditional Use/Special Use Permit
You can see in the chart above that some uses are allowed with a Conditional Use Permit, as noted by the letter "C" in the above chart and legend. For example, large medical clinics are conditionally allowed in areas zoned I-1. Cities place conditional use restrictions on land to give them a further opportunity to review, control, and approve development plans before allowing the development to proceed. Usually, if a use is permitted in a zoning designation, a developer is entitled, without public hearing, to develop the property within the limits established by the zoning. However, by putting a conditional use permit restriction in the zoning ordinance, the city removes that blanket approval, and establishes approval by public hearing. For example, a city may want to allow a retail oriented urgent care clinic that can conveniently service the light medical needs of a nearby residential community in zoning I-1, but they may not want to allow a large cancer treatment clinic at this same location. This conditional use permit requirement gives the city more control over what buildings go where. Sometimes getting a conditional/special use permit can be as difficult as re-zoning the land.
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Platting
Platting is the process of subdividing land. Or if you are assembling more than one lot into a bigger lot, you would re-plat those into the bigger lot. Your investigation of the need to plat or re-plat happens early in your site evaluation process. Platting and re-platting is almost always a public hearing event, so take it seriously and limit your pre-development spending until you know you can get your desired land site platted appropriately.
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Even If You are Zoned Properly...
Even if your land is zoned to allow your planned use, you still may not be able to build what you want. In some cities, you must overcome approvals from site plan approval committees, design review boards and neighborhood planning committees. Look into these potential additional barriers to your design plans before moving full steam ahead with your pre-development process.
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