Overlay Districts
Meeting Housing Goals by Loosening Commercial Zoning
Torrance, a city on the coast of Southern California in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, recently adopted a zoning overlay that will relax commercial zones to allow more residential development.
Examining Philadelphia’s Zoning Overlay Districts
A decades-old policy allowing hyperlocal zoning exemptions and restrictions creates a confusing patchwork of zoning regulations across the city.
What Is an Overlay District?
A zoning overlay district superimposes an additional set of regulations over an existing zoning district, or multiple zoning districts.
Denver Wants Ground Floor Retail, Sidewalk Extensions to Achieve Main Street 'Vibe'
The Arts District on Santa Fe Drive is considered one of Denver's final frontiers for revitalization. Local stakeholders are targeting zoning changes as a potential solution.
Seattle Weighs Protections for Mobile Home Parks
To protect a valuable source of affordable housing, Seattle's city council will consider creating a 'mobile home overlay district' that would preserve housing and regulate new development.
Philadelphia Neighborhoods Leverage Zoning Overlays for Local Control
Overlay districts provide a tool for guiding the future of development and environmental controls at the neighborhood level.
Making Sense of San Antonio's Infill Development Plans
San Antonio is changing, and the city's land use regulations aren't living up to the desires of the city's communities, according to one local architect and planner.
Proposed Ordinance Would Rework Dallas’ Conservation Districts
Dallas is mulling changes to the process by which neighborhoods can seek and obtain conservation district status. As city staff considers the changes, one former councilwoman for the city asks, “if it ain’t broke…”
The Potential for Rail Station Overlay Districts
A House bill in Maryland that would have created overlay districts around train stations failed to pass, but N.J. Slabbert writes that the ideas were solid and should find new life in a different form.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
