Standing To Appeal Zoning Determinations: The “Aggrieved Person” Requirement

During the twentieth century the states have increasingly utilized their police power to control the use of land. All fifty states have now enacted zoning enabling legislation, much of which is based in whole or in part on the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act. Typically, these zoning acts, like the Standard Act, empower municipalities to promulgate land use regulations by dividing the municipality “into districts of such number, shape, and area as may be deemed best suited to carry out the purposes of this act …” Most zoning acts specify that “all such regulations shall be uniform for each class or kind of buildings throughout each district, but the regulations in one district may differ from those in other districts.”