Legal Zoning: A Review of the US Experience in the Context of the Transformation of the Russian System of Urban Regulation

Abstract

This article is devoted to the consideration of the US experience in legal zoning in order to critically assess the possibilities of its application in Russia. The study is carried out in the form of a literature review, which considers theoretical and empirical international studies, based on an analysis of data about US cities. The most cited English-language publications about zoning are selected according to a predetermined algorithm using a “structured qualitative literature review” (SQLR) approach and then carefully examined. Consideration of the selected studies tells us about the breadth of the legal zoning toolkit in the US. A comparison of the history of legal zoning formation in the US and Russia allows us to draw conclusions about the different dynamics of institutional development in these two countries. The conclusions of the article are relevant for the situation in Russia, where, in the presence of a legislative basis for the development of zoning institutions, local practices of land use regulation remain largely ineffective.