Land Use and Built Environment Laws and Regulations
This tab includes laws, legislation, regulations, agency guidance, and executive orders relevant to land use and the built environment.
Resources are automatically presented by rating, but can be sorted by date or title. Apply additional filters to narrow by resource type, state, region, impact, or jurisdictional focus.
67 results are shown below.
Filter by States AffectedSelect states to filter this list
All
Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Marianas Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
Resource
January 25, 2024
In January 2024, North Carolina updated its Uniform Floodplain Management Policy for State Property for the first time since 1990. The update was mandated through Executive Order 266 to account for rising risks of flooding and severe storms, which are being exacerbated by climate change and sea level rise. The policy governs design and building standards for state buildings to build resilience against flooding.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
July 1st 2023
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection adopted a new rule created to better respond to increased flooding due to climate change. The new Inland Flood Protection rule updates rainfall data, which was previously calculated only through 1999, and accounts for future climate conditions in design requirements for new and reconstructed investments in high-risk areas. The new rule, initially proposed by DEP in December 2022, was filed in June 2023 and effective July 2023. The impetus for changing the rule was in response to the effects of Tropical Storm Ida in 2021.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
May 12, 2023
Colorado’s SB 23-166 established the Wildfire Resiliency Code Board to improve community resiliency to wildfires through the implementation of model codes by a board of government and industry professionals.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
Updated April 11, 2023
Since 2008, the Town of West Hartford, CT has passed updates to its development regulations for the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA; §177-8 of the municipal zoning code) that aim to protect people and the built environment from the impacts of flooding, notably expanding freeboard requirements in 2023.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
October 2022
In October 2022, the South San Francisco, CA City Council, updated its zoning code to incorporate a Flood Plain/Sea Level Rise (SLR) overlay district intended to “mitigate the impacts of sea level rise, and protect the health, safety, and welfare of residents of [South San Francisco]. ” The additional purposes of the overlay district are to “limit the potential impact of coastal flooding and erosion patterns on coastal development,” adapt to climate change, create adaptation strategies with a priority on long-term resilience, “establish standards consistent with the San Mateo County Flood and Sea Level Rise Resiliency District,” introduce “flood-proof” construction to South San Francisco, and restore creek ecologies to build resilience.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
May 20, 2022
Ascension and St. Tammany Parishes are two parishes or counties in Louisiana that are using planning and zoning to promote floodplain management and conserve green spaces. Each parish is contemplating how to preserve suburban and rural character through planning processes. In addition, each parish has crafted code language that allows it to conserve rural spaces by discouraging sprawl and floodplain development and by downzoning or decreasing developable density outside commercial centers.
Ascension Parish
Master Land Use Plan
In 2019, Ascension released an updated version of its Master Land Use Plan, which was approved by the parish’s Planning Commission.
Resource Category: Planning
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
May 20, 2022
Mexico Beach is a small, coastal community in Bay County, Florida that has begun to adopt resilience measures following climate-enhanced disasters from hurricanes and flooding. Following Hurricane Michael, Mexico Beach amended its zoning regulations to require that new structures be elevated at least a foot and a half higher than the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s base-level flood predictions in both the city’s 100-year and 500-year floodplains. The city also partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement specific stormwater management projects, such as bioswales and retention projects, on certain streets. Smaller communities, such as in rural areas, and local governments can look to Mexico Beach as an example of how to incorporate resilience measures into zoning ordinances, especially in a post-disaster context.
Resource Category: Planning
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
2022
The Borough of Avalon, New Jersey updated their Floodplain Ordinance in 2022 by passing Ord. No. 849-2022, incorporating expanded areas subject to regulation and heightened standards designed to better ensure flood protection of structures.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
December 6, 2021
In December 2021, the City of Burlingame, California, passed Title 25 into its zoning ordinance, creating guidelines and development performance standards for ensuring public access and resilience to flooding and sea-level rise. These standards include minimum buffer zones, shoreline building and infrastructure elevation requirements, drainage standards, and real estate disclosure requirements.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
September 14th, 2021
The U. S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released this report, in response to congressional requests, to determine how agencies prevent or reduce natural disaster damage to real property. As the largest real property owner in the United States, the federal government has assets that are exposed to a high level of risk from extreme weather and climate-related events. The federal government has an opportunity to enhance natural disaster resilience of their real property through effective asset management.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
