Home-study Zoning School
The Zoning School is a land use training program for local government officials. It was originally created in 1999 by the Land Use Law Center for the New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal (NYMIR). The program allows local governments to self-certify their boards when the majority of the board has satisfactorily completed five of the nine lessons contained within the program.
Program Format
This program contains nine lessons, each covering a different aspect of law and practice applicable to the work of local land use boards. The nine different tutorials are:
- Zoning – The Basics
- Comprehensive Planning
- Subdivision Approval
- Site Plan Approvals and Conditions
- Variances
- Special Use Permits and Permit Conditions
- Environmental Review
- Local Boards
- Strategic Local Laws
The Zoning School’s self-directed program is flexible allowing members to take the lessons that round out their experience and teach them subjects they need to know to be productive members of their particular board.
The certification program will take approximately 10 hours to complete. Each session is designed to take 2 hours.
How to Get Started
To complete the Zoning School and use this flexible home-study approach to educate your members and become self-certified, download the Zoning School Guide below. For more information, contact Tiffany Zezula, Director of Training for the Land Use Law Center, at (914) 422-4034 or tzezula@law.pace.edu.