Zoning
Every municipality writes its own code, so the same letters mean different things in different places. These pages give you the general meaning, show how real cities define it, and point you at the official map. When you need the answer for one specific parcel, Plotzy reads the ordinance and cites the section.
A step-by-step method for looking up a parcel's zoning, reading the designation, telling permitted from conditional uses, catching overlays and planned developments, and confirming it with the planning department.
What the common codes mean, how they vary between cities, and what you can typically build in each.
Agricultural or rural district in most counties, with large minimum lots; in Phoenix, the light industrial district.
A second agricultural tier in most county codes, heavier or with different lot sizes than A-1; in Phoenix, the heavy industrial district.
The neighborhood business district in codes that use B instead of C: small retail, services, and offices near homes.
The middle business district in most B codes: community-scale retail, restaurants, and services, often with housing above.
The general business district in most B codes: shopping centers, large-format retail, hotels, and often auto-oriented uses.
Small-scale neighborhood retail, offices, and services; usually excludes auto-oriented and heavy commercial uses.
The general commercial corridor district: broad retail, restaurants, services, and, often conditionally, auto-oriented uses.
The most intensive commercial district in most codes: highway retail, vehicle sales and service, contractor and wholesale uses.
An upper-tier commercial district: regional shopping and general commercial in most codes, heavy auto-oriented commercial in some.
Light industrial in codes that use I instead of M: warehousing, distribution, light manufacturing, flex, and often self-storage.
Heavy or general industrial in codes that use I instead of M: manufacturing, truck terminals, and outdoor storage yards.
Light industrial: warehousing, distribution, light manufacturing, and flex space, with outdoor storage limited or conditional.
Heavy or general industrial: manufacturing, truck terminals, outdoor storage yards, and other high-impact uses by right.
The heaviest manufacturing district in most M codes: high-impact industry, waste and recycling, fuel storage, and outdoor yards.
Districts that allow residential together with commercial or office uses, usually residential above ground-floor retail.
The low-intensity office district: professional and medical offices in small buildings, often mapped as a buffer next to homes.
A negotiated district whose uses and standards live in an approved development plan and ordinance rather than the general code.
Single-family detached homes on individual lots; the lowest-density residential district in most codes.
Usually two-family homes and small-lot houses; in some cities, a low-density multifamily district.
Townhouses and small apartment buildings; the first district in most codes where multifamily is allowed by right.
Medium-to-high density multifamily in most codes; a low-density house district in a few, including New York and Baltimore.
The highest-density multifamily district in many codes; a rowhouse, small-apartment, or two-family district in others.
Large-lot houses with limited farming and animal keeping; minimum lots range from a quarter acre to several acres by jurisdiction.
The terms that decide whether a deal works: what each one means, how the process runs, and what it costs you in time and risk.
A use or project the zoning code allows without a hearing or discretionary approval.
Approval for a use the code allows in a district only after case-by-case review and conditions.
Building floor area divided by lot area: the cap on how much floor space a site can hold.
A use that was legal when it began but no longer complies because the zoning changed.
A second layer of zoning rules mapped over the base district that adds limits or permissions.
Changing a parcel's zoning district by ordinance, after hearings and a governing body vote.
The minimum distance a building must sit from a lot line, street, or other feature.
Rezoning one small parcel unlike its surroundings to benefit an owner instead of following a plan.
Permission to depart from one zoning rule on one parcel when applying it as written causes a hardship.
What upzoning, ADU, parking, and lot-size reforms change for a site, and plain-English guides to the laws behind them.
A second, smaller home on a house lot, and the laws that require cities to allow it.
California's law allowing two homes and a lot split on single-family parcels, up to four homes.
NYC's 2024 citywide zoning amendment: affordability bonus, transit-area apartments, ADUs, less parking.
Florida's law allowing affordable multifamily on commercial and industrial land without a rezoning.
The Massachusetts law requiring 177 communities to zone a district for multifamily housing as of right.
Laws that lower the smallest lot a subdivision can create, and what that does to yield.
Duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and townhouses, and the laws that now allow them on house lots.
Required off-street parking, the laws cutting it, and what that changes for site yield.
Texas SB 840 allows apartments in commercial zones. SB 15 caps minimum lot sizes at 3,000 square feet.
A zoning change that lets a parcel hold more units, floor area, or height than before.
The rule changes cities and states are making to zoning, and what they change for a parcel.
Where the official map and code live for each city, the districts you will see on it, and what they allow.
Where Austin's official zoning map and code live, what the SF, MF, LO, GR, CS, LI, and PUD districts mean, how combining districts and overlays change them, and why some Austin addresses have no zoning at all.
Where Detroit's official zoning maps and ordinance live, what the R1 to R6, B1 to B6, M1 to M5, PD, and SD districts mean, and how special land use approvals work.
Where the City of Miami's Miami 21 zoning atlas lives, how the T3 to T6 transect zones and their R, L, and O suffixes work, how city zoning differs from unincorporated Miami-Dade County, and what the Live Local Act changed.
Where Phoenix's official zoning maps and ordinance live, what the R1-6, R-2 to R-5, C-1 to C-3, A-1, A-2, and PUD districts mean, and the overlays and recent state laws that change them.