Planned Unit Development

The efforts of those seeking imaginative, flexible, and creative results from planning, zoning, and land-use controls have recently been concentrated on planned unit development (PUD). The basic purpose of PUD is to do away with the inflexible dimensional standards and use regulations of conventional zoning and planning laws, and thereby to encourage creative large-scale development in a way which can best utilize the land for the collective benefit of the residents. Individual PUD\u27s most frequently involve the use of density zoning, rather than the conventional technique of minimum lot sizes. Under density zoning, by varying lot sizes and using buildings such as apartments and condominiums along with the customary single- and multi-family types, the developer is allowed to duster his development, as long as the prescribed overall density of dwelling units per acre is maintained. This enables the developer to create more common open space. The emphasis in some PUD\u27s is on mixing different building types or land uses. The basic philosophy of PUD is to substitute flexibility, creativity, and variety for the inflexibility and lack of variety which conventional zoning often imposes on the developer