Technology and Commercial Real Estate: Part 4 Technology’s Impact on Zoning and Land Use

By Bill Adams, President, MBA, CCIM, CRB, ALC

This is the fourth in a series of articles on how technology has changed the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) industry since the 1970s.

One of the basic principles of commercial real estate is that the zoning and land use of a property will affect the property’s value.

Thus, as a rule of thumb, the more intense the allowed use, the more valuable the property. A parcel of land zoned for single family use will be less valuable than a similar sized lot or parcel of land zoned for a high-rise office, multifamily or mixed-use property.

At or near the top of a checklist a broker will use when listing a property is determining its current zoning. The local municipality or, in the case of an unincorporated area, the county will have regulations dictating how a property can be used.

Up until a decade or so ago verifying the zoning of a property meant a trip to the City or County Planning and Zoning Department to look at a map book that showed the zoning within that jurisdiction. As an alternative, in some cities or counties, you could telephone the Zoning Department to get that information. I always preferred looking at the zoning map myself. A broker also needed a copy of the local Zoning Ordinance to be able to interpret the zoning designation they saw on the map. In a large metropolitan area like Atlanta, you had a stack of local zoning ordinances on your desktop.

Today, all you must have on your desktop is your computer. Most authorities have their zoning maps online. Those cumbersome zoning ordinances are also available online. Thus, you can quickly discover the zoning of a property by pulling up a zoning map and determine its use and restrictions by reading the zoning regulations on the web.

It is a good practice to keep up with zoning changes in your market area. Most cities and counties will publish zoning agendas on their websites. In the post Covid pandemic world, public hearings involving zoning are often available on Zoom or a similar platform. Zoning hearings at the neighborhood level are also sometimes available online. Thus, technology allows you to skip a hearing in person and follow the proceedings from the comfort of your office or home. Obviously, if you or a client are seeking a zoning change it is a best practice to attend all the hearings in person. You can only leverage the internet so far!