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Community anti Fconornic Develop~n°•^t Toolbox: lJverlay L?~slru;ts Page I of 4 <br /> _ <br /> y( i i ~ <br /> Y <br /> iOEf ~-91_'~.i <br /> by David Church <br /> ~,:rr,~r ~~a~a ~:;A,~ad„> New York Planning Federation <br /> r , ; . How we treat our land is one of the most important <br /> challenges facing us today. Many critical decisions about land <br /> a s° , : , . „ $,,+na , r. use are made at the local level, through a community's master <br /> plan, zoning laws, subdivision regulations and <br /> , ; complementary programs. <br /> 3--,~ k ~ Unfortunately, conventional land use regulation such as <br /> zoning often fails to protect significant environmental <br /> „ , resources. The original, early loth century concept of zoning <br /> .e, , , , regulation was to make living conditions safer by dividing a <br /> municipality into different areas; locating, for example, <br /> s factories and industries in one area and housing in another. <br /> , Built on this concept of separation of uses, zoning evolved <br /> into a tool for planning the direction of a town's future <br /> expansion to best suit its transportation, health and safety <br /> needs. More recently, protecting important environmental <br /> resources has also become a major issue. <br /> What is an "overlay district"? <br /> An "overlay district" is a special zone that is drawn on a map <br /> outlining a significant resource. The resource could be an <br /> aquifer, a watershed, a shoreline, an historic area or a <br /> mountain ridge. This district is "overlaid" on the existing land <br /> use regulations such as subdivision requirements, site plan <br /> review or zoning districts of the town. The overlay district <br /> then supplements these existing regulations. This approach <br /> allows a town to maintain or update current codes while <br /> addressing the special needs of particularly sensitive areas. <br /> A good example of overlay districts is floodplains, where any <br /> <br /> http://unvw.cardi.t~omell.e~lulc:d U~trl~trx ?ltools/ove±'IRzy,tlistricts.ti.l.'ro ]0113/'~.~0'1, <br /> <br />