Here are the 7 steps to get a property rezoned, the basics for real estate investors.

by | Indy Anna, Real Estate Investing, Uncategorized

“I want to rezone my property, how do I do it?”

Here are the 7 steps to get a property rezoned, the basics for real estate investors.

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The seven steps to get a property rezoned, how rezoning works for real estate estate investors and homeowners.

You may come across a situation where you need to get a property rezoned to make the most from it financially and it may mean you will be turning the property into something else completely.

So how are you going to get this done?

How exactly do you rezone a property?

It varies from city to city, but we are going to give you the basic process.

The first step is knowing your local zoning ordinances.

These can usually be found on your local city government website. There are some things that are okay to go ahead a do if you know the law.  This includes setting up a business out of a residential property if it’s a type of business that’s allowed for in the legislation, like in-home child care for example.

Other bigger things like zoning commercial to residential, will require a few more steps.

Here are the basic seven steps to rezoning a property:

1.)  Apply for rezoning at your local government building and planning office.

This will be and include an application about what you plan to do with the property and usually you have to explain why.  You want to have the detail details of the property ready.  This includes the impact and/or potential impact to your neighbors, city and taxes.

2.)  Bring a check or other accepted method of paying to cover the application fee.

This fee can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars based on the property.  You also may have to pay for things like appraisals, inspections, environmental impact studies, etc.  You won’t always have to pay for this at this time and instead you may just have to commit to ordering and paying for those items.

3.)  Make sure you’ve got your application and fee turned in before the cutoff for submission to the next meeting and it’s not going to roll over to the next one.

If you miss even a “minor” deadline it may delay your hearing or appointment by several months or even a year or more.  You may also have to pay for everything all over again AND even order the other verification appointments like appraisals.  Make sure you know the dates and meet the deadlines.

4.)  You may be required to publicize the date, time and location of public zoning hearing.

It is possible that if you skip this step your entire application and process will be invalid.  You want to know exactly what “Publicize” means, this may require running ads in the local paper, putting out signs in five-mile radius, alerting local school boards, etc.

5.)  Meet your rezoning assessor at your property for the on-site inspection.

This will work kind of like an appraisal but you want to contact their office and make sure they have all the necessary paperwork to them before they come out to the property.  In some cases they will want to see detailed plans and approvals before this inspection, in other cases after.

6.)  There should be a written assessment of the zoning boards findings sent to you.

Your local board will complete their verifying, inspections and approval process and you will get a result.  They may also make suggestions or provide contingent approvals.  You want to work closely with them and make sure you comply with their requests and/or be prepared to effectively dispute their findings.  This will often happen at the public meeting.

7.)  Attend the public hearing where voting takes place.

Finally, if your rezoning is approved this is where you find out.  If it is not approved, this is where you find that out too.  If you win and it is approved then you may still need to wait for it to be officially changed into legislation.  In some states this may also require a new round of public notices and additional public legislation meetings so beware of how long that can run in your state.

If you don’t get the rezoning you wanted then you can retain a lawyer and appeal the decision and go to court.  This will obviously cost more money and time.  Keep in mind that under constitutional protection it is less difficult to get rezoning for things like churches.  Other things though, like a property deemed “historical”, can be very difficult to get rezoned.

Generally speaking it is easier to get undeveloped land rezoned than developed land.

Here are some helpful places:

An article about nine things people always say at zoning hearings, illustrated by cats.

Some other things you may hear at a public zoning meeting, a few example cases and also a presentation template that you can use is here. 

Here is a sample of a rezoning application in an editable .pdf form HERE.

You can download a sample .pdf rezoning application HERE.

Another badass resource:

How to start from zero and build a real estate business that makes you five grand a week for the rest of your life… in less than 90 days:

https://www.BigReia.com

Hope that helps everybody.

Thanks so much!  = )

Make the Universe Smile.

~ Indy Anna 

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