Interim Zoning Law and Legal Definition
Interim zoning means a temporary emergency zoning that is conducted while the local government makes revisions to existing zoning ordinances, or creates and adopts a final zoning plan or zoning ordinance, or addresses some other local policy issue in the state. It helps to preserve the status quo or at least to limit the extent of change that can occur from the zoning activities. It is also termed as stopgap zoning.
In Liberty Cove, Inc. v. Missoula County, 2009 MT 377 (Mont. 2009), the court held that “Due process requires that the notice and hearing procedures of standard zoning apply to interim zoning.” In addition the court in Matson v. Clark County Bd. of Comm'rs, 79 Wn. App. 641 (Wash. Ct. App. 1995), held that “If interim zoning is to serve its purpose in a state with a permissive vested rights doctrine, it must not be subject to time-consuming notice and hearing requirements applicable to ordinary zoning.”
