SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF REZONING APPROVAL DECISIONS

This research examines how compatibility with a land use plan affects rezoning approval decisions and the consequences of such decisions on a community's spatial pattern of development. Compatibility with the land use plan is hypothesized to affect rezoning approvals from undevelopable land classifications to developable land classifications. An empirical model of binary decisions for rezoning approvals at the parcel scale is developed to test this hypothesis. The results show that the predicted approval rates for rezoning for development drop under hypothetical land use scenarios with expanded areas zoned for agricultural‐rural residential use compared with the status quo land use plan. The decreases in predicted approval rates result from decreases in the approval rates in the expanded areas designated for agricultural‐rural residential use. These results indicate that redrawing the area designated for agricultural‐rural residential use can restrict the expansion of residential sprawl and commercial development.