Model subdivision regulations

This updated edition of a long-running planning handbook supplies a complete model subdivision ordinance for city and county governments, along with more than a hundred pages of legal analysis. The regulations are built to fit alongside most state statutes and to work in urban, suburban, and rural communities alike.

The model explains how localities can pay for public infrastructure, how new development can fit with the neighborhoods around it, and how to avoid legal challenges based on regulatory takings or substantive due process. Two chapters are new to this edition: one on public facilities impact fees and one on land readjustment. The impact fee chapter also examines how prominent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have affected property rights, development, and government regulation of land.

Each section of the ordinance is followed by commentary that supports, annotates, and documents the text. The authors justify the rationale for each provision by drawing on existing statutory authority, case law, and federal constitutional requirements. The commentary also identifies and explains where the regulations depart from the original model.

The book is intended for anyone drafting new subdivision rules or weighing amendments to existing ones.