"A Standard State Zoning Enabling Act" (SZEA) was a

model law A model act, also called a model law or a piece of model legislation, is a suggested example for a law, drafted centrally to be disseminated and suggested for enactment in multiple independent legislatures. The motivation classically has been the ...

for U.S. states to enable

zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

regulations in their jurisdictions. It was drafted by a committee of the

Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...

and first issued in 1922. This act was one of the foundational developments in

land use planning Land use planning is the process of regulating the use of land by a central authority. Usually, this is done to promote more desirable social and environmental outcomes as well as a more efficient use of resources. More specifically, the goals ...

in the United States.

Background

The zoning advisory committee that wrote the standard act was formed in the

U.S. Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth ...

in September 1921. The

Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...

was

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

, who was later elected US President.

Summary

The SZEA begins with several explanatory notes. The act itself is nine sections with annotations mostly describing the committee's choice of words. The SZEA was first issued in August 1922, was reissued in revised form in January 1923, and was first printed in May 1924. More than 55,000 copies of the first printed edition were sold. A second printed edition was published in 1926.

Legacy

The 1926 revised second printing noted that 19 states had passed enabling acts modeled on the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act. The

American Planning Association The American Planning Association (APA) is a professional organization representing the field of urban planning in the United States. APA was formed in 1978, when two separate professional planning organizations, the American Institute of Pla ...

wrote that the SZEA and the Standard City Planning Enabling Act of 1927 "laid the basic foundation for land development controls in the U.S."

Notes

References

* *{{cite book , title=Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook: Model Statutes for Planning and the Management of Change , url=https://www.planning.org/growingsmart/guidebook/ , editor-last=Meck , editor-first=Stuart , edition=2002 , date=January 2002 , publisher=American Planning Association , location=Chicago, Illinois , oclc=275187048

External links

APA: Standard Acts
with the text of the SZEA and the SCPEA Zoning in the United States 1921 in law Real property law in the United States Urban planning in the United States Uniform Acts