Title: The Impact of Zoning on Property Values
Headings: The Impact of Zoning on Property Values
The Impact of Zoning on Property Values
Shannon Slater Follow
MNAA, Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser at DW Slater Company
What is Zoning?
What is the Highest and Best Use Analysis?
How would zoning impact the value of a property?
Shannon Slater
MNAA, Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser at DW Slater Company

Content: The building is located near a downtown district. The city zoning created a Historic District which included the vacant building which was formally used for manufacturing. The new Historic District us does not allow for light manufacturing thus this building which was designed for manufacturing can no longer be sold to anyone that would need to use it for light industrial use. Since the building had been vacant for a certain amount of time it could not have a legal non-conforming use as light manufacturing. Because of the zoning, the value of the property is diminished as the number of buyers that would have a use for the building has now been greatly reduced which, based on supply and demand , would lessen the value of the building. Another example might be the density requirement of zoning. If there are two different large tracks of land, one zoned for SFR - minimum lot size 7,500 sf and the other track of land is zoned SFR- minimum lot size 1 acre. A developer is wanting to put in a residential development. Which track of land would be more valuable? A feasibility analysis would need to be performed to see if the smaller lots would produce a higher return or if developing on the larger lots would produce a higher return.