Zoning for Sustainability: Methods and Trends.

Presented by: Dr. Edward Jepson and Dr. Anna Haines.

To characterize and measure the extent to which sustainability concepts and ideas are integrated into zoning codes in U.S. cities.

We designed an evaluation tool based on Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute (RMLUI) and the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver RMLUI’s draft code. Forty cities in the U.S. were selected on the basis of geographic location and population and whether they responded affirmatively to the question of whether they had “made a deliberate effort to include sustainability concepts and principles” in their zoning codes. Two individuals evaluated all the zoning codes to ensure an 85% reliability coder score or higher match in our individual scores. An important part of our scoring is that only concepts that are permitted in a zoning code are counted; conditional or special uses are not counted.

Our analysis will summarize the results of the scores and evaluations from the 40 zoning codes and compare and contrast the results. We will identify and examine the particular concepts that are included most and least and in addition examine scores by population and regional location. The evaluation tool covers residential and commercial uses, including but not limited to urban agriculture, energy systems, density, and natural areas.