​Plan Implementation Tools

Regulatory Tools

Land division and subdivision ordinances provide standards and procedures for dividing and recording individual parcels of land within a community.
 
Zoning regulates land uses, densities and dimensional standards such as lot sizes, setbacks and building height limitations.
 
An overlay zone is a special zoning district that is placed over existing base zones to protect specific resources.
 
APF regulations ensure that adequate public facilities, such as roads, transit facilities, and sewer and water are in place prior to allowing new development.
 

Design-Based Tools

A PUD is proposed and approved as a package; it allows a developer to meet overall community density and land use goals without being bound by existing zoning requirements.
 
Conservation design encourages the clustering of buildings and lots on a development site in order to preserve specific resources.
 

TND promotes compact, mixed use neighborhoods where residential, commercial and civic buildings are within close proximity to each other. 

Financial Tools

The CIP identifies the proposed timing, location and financing of capital improvements over a multi-year period.
 
Tax increment financing is used to spur the development or redevelopment of a specified area.
 
An impact fee is used to recover the anticipated capital cost of providing public facilities needed to serve a new development.
 
PDR is a voluntary program used to permanently protect productive or sensitive landscapes while retaining private ownership and management of the land. 
 

Voluntary, Incentive-Based Tools

TDR is a voluntary program that allows landowners to sell development rights from their land to a developer or other interested party who then can use those rights to increase the density of development at another designated location.
 
A density bonus permits developers to increase the maximum allowable development on a property in exchange for helping the community to achieve public policy goals.
 
A conservation easement is a legal agreement voluntarily placed on a piece of property to restrict the development, management or use of the land.