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.
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January 20, 2026
New Jersey’s Resilient Environments and Landscapes (REAL) rules, adopted in January 2026, represent a landmark regulatory reform effort by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to better account for climate change and future conditions in development and environmental protection.
Related Organizations: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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Updated Oct 2, 2025
The city of Satellite Beach, FL, published updates to its floodplain management ordinance in 2014, elevating freeboard requirements for critical facilities to include consideration of the 0.2-percent annual chance flood hazard area (500-year floodplain).
Related Organizations: City of Satellite Beach, Florida
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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July 16, 2025
On September 8, 2025 the Kaua’i County mayor signed Bill No. 2961 into law, advancing wildfire mitigation efforts in Kaua’i’s plantation camp districts by implementing wildfire safety and risk reduction into the zoning and permitting process.
Related Organizations: County Council of Kaua'i
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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July 9, 2025
The Ocean City, Maryland Code of Ordinances includes a comprehensive flood damage prevention policy (Chapter 38, Article II). The policy, which includes both building hardening standards and floodplain management rules, is meant to protect people, property, and the environment from the impacts of coastal flooding in the city by restricting construction and development in high-risk areas.
Related Organizations: Ocean City, Maryland
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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June 10, 2025
Connecticut Public Act No. 25-33, signed by the Governor on June 10, 2025, is a wide-reaching environmental and climate adaptation law that creates new standards and requirements for state and local government as well as the private sector. Sections 5-16 of the Act make revisions to Connecticut's land use and planning statutes, ensuring that Connecticut’s local planning and regulatory frameworks account for observed and projected climate conditions.
Related Organizations: State of Connecticut
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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June 10, 2025
Connecticut Public Act No. 25-33, signed by the Governor on June 10, 2025, is a wide-reaching environmental and climate adaptation law that creates new standards and requirements for state and local government as well as the private sector. Sections 21-30 of the Act create a Resiliency Improvement District framework through which local governments can finance resilience projects.
Related Organizations: State of Connecticut
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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June 10, 2025
Connecticut Public Act No. 25-33, signed by the Governor on June 10, 2025, is a wide-reaching environmental and climate adaptation law that creates new standards and requirements for state and local government as well as the private sector. Sections 17–18 of the Act authorize municipalities to use transfer of development rights (TDR) programs for resilience purposes.
Related Organizations: State of Connecticut
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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June 1, 2025
In response to the growing intensity and frequency of wildfires, Colorado adopted a Wildfire Resilience Code, which sets minimum standards for structural hardening and fire hazard risk reduction for new buildings located in the wildland-urban interface.
Related Organizations: Colorado Department of Public Safety
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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October 31, 2025
Georgetown Climate Center studied local ordinance-centered approaches to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and identifying and reducing climate-driven flood risk in an October 2025 report, “Local Ordinances for Climate Adaptation & Mitigation. ” As part of that project, GCC’s research identified 11 ordinances from Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, New Hampshire, and New Jersey that represent some of the best uses of local ordinances to advance climate adaptation and protect people and property.
Related Organizations: Georgetown Climate Center
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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May 16, 2025
In May 2025, the Hampton, New Hampshire Planning Board adopted the annual update of the Zoning Ordinance and Building Codes to restrict development of critical facilities in flood-prone areas, incorporate sea-level rise, and update freeboard values.
Related Organizations: Hampton Planning Board
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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