And generally planners are not permitted to do social-change planning per se, although recently economic planning has made it into General Plans in a big way. The results, unfortunately, are often the further fragmentation of our cities and towns. At the same time, founders of sustainable communities often don't understand, or only poorly understand, the specific terms and concepts used by planners. When ecovillagers do grasp the planning process, the time required to teach public agencies about the merits of ecovillages can take much valuable time away from actually building the community. Zoning is an important form of development control.
Most zoning ordinances regulate land use, density, building mass, and parking.
First used in the United States in the 1920s, some zoning ordinances are applied as if conditions have not changed since then. The problem with much zoning is that it rarely considers the environment in a wholistic way. Social and economic factors are not approached in an integral way. Fortunately, in recent decades helpful planning tools have been adopted in many jurisdictions around the country. Their use for sustainable community development requires the right combination of vision and chemistry from both local officials and ecovillage developers.