08/07/2024

Survey says! Expanding administrative review is the top PROCESS tool

It’s the third most popular tool overall

One surprise about reforming your zoning code to allow for more, and more affordable, housing is just how many regulations–seemingly unrelated–affect the type and amount of housing that actually gets built. Approval processes have an outsize role.

Allowing administrative review of housing is one of those regulations, and 43% of the respondents to our Zoning Reform Toolkit Survey use it. “Administrative review” of development proposals means that staff, rather than the Planning Commission, has the authority to approve an application for a use that’s permitted by right and conforms to all of the regulations in the ordinance. It is generally faster and yields a more predictable process than Planning Commission review, both of which make it appealing to developers. That appeal influences developers to choose the administrative option more often, and the end result is more developments that comply with the standards in the zoning ordinance, accomplished for less money because they took less time. 

Examples in the Toolkit

• Kalamazoo Zoning Ordinance
• Albion Zoning Ordinance

Eliminating or reducing the types of proposals that are subject to approval by the community’s elected body also increases predictability in the development process. This tool was used by only 24% of survey respondents. The purpose of creating an appointed body to govern land use is to provide some insulation from the immediate political pressures of the decision, and to inject some expertise into it. Sending the decision to the political body reintroduces that political pressure, and the unpredictability that comes with it. 

Examples in the Toolkit

• Pinckney Economic Development Strategy
• Midland Zoning Ordinance