CME CME Land Use Planning & Zoning 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'inclusionary zoning' designed to accomplish?
- Exclude manufactured housing from residential areas
- Require or incentivize developers to include affordable housing units within market-rate developments (Correct answer)
- Include commercial uses within industrial zones
- Zone for higher-density development near transit
Correct answer: Require or incentivize developers to include affordable housing units within market-rate developments
Inclusionary zoning policies require or encourage a percentage of units in new residential developments to be affordable to lower-income households.
Question 2: What is the 'taking' doctrine in US land use law and its relevance to municipal engineers?
- Eminent domain for road projects
- When government regulation goes too far in restricting property use, it may constitute a constitutional taking requiring compensation (Correct answer)
- Municipal purchase of vacant land
- Property tax assessment methodology
Correct answer: When government regulation goes too far in restricting property use, it may constitute a constitutional taking requiring compensation
The Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause requires just compensation when government regulation deprives a property owner of all or substantially all economically beneficial use.
Question 3: What is Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) as a land use planning tool?
- Transferring a building permit between owners
- A market-based program allowing development rights to be transferred from protected sending areas to designated receiving areas (Correct answer)
- Rezoning property to a higher density
- A state takeover of local zoning authority
Correct answer: A market-based program allowing development rights to be transferred from protected sending areas to designated receiving areas
TDR programs preserve open space, farmland, or historic sites by allowing owners to sell their development potential to developers who can build at higher densities in designated receiving zones.
Question 4: What is the purpose of a subdivision ordinance in municipal planning?
- Regulate the interior design of buildings
- Govern the division of land into parcels, setting standards for streets, utilities, and plat recording (Correct answer)
- Set building height limits only
- Control commercial signage
Correct answer: Govern the division of land into parcels, setting standards for streets, utilities, and plat recording
Subdivision ordinances regulate the process of dividing land, establishing standards for street design, utility installation, lot configuration, and the required review and plat recording process.
Question 5: What is 'form-based code' as an alternative to conventional use-based zoning?
- Zoning that regulates only building heights
- A land use regulation that primarily controls building form, massing, and street relationship rather than separating uses (Correct answer)
- A building code for structural design
- A code requiring standardized document formats
Correct answer: A land use regulation that primarily controls building form, massing, and street relationship rather than separating uses
Form-based codes regulate physical form (setbacks, façades, building height, street walls) to create predictable built environments, often allowing mixed uses that conventional Euclidean zoning separates.
Question 6: What does NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) require for major federal and federally funded municipal projects?
- An air quality permit only
- An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or Environmental Assessment (EA) evaluating significant environmental effects (Correct answer)
- A state environmental review only
- Annual environmental monitoring reports
Correct answer: An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or Environmental Assessment (EA) evaluating significant environmental effects
NEPA requires federal agencies and federally funded projects to prepare an EA or EIS analyzing potential environmental impacts and alternatives before project approval.
CME CME Land Use Planning & Zoning 2
What is 'inclusionary zoning' designed to accomplish?