Loss of Greenspace in the City of
Austin from the Grant of Minor Variances. 
Part One of this
project examines the feasibility of, and demonstrates the possible applications
in, conducting a zoning research project on the World Wide Web.
Please click all images.
INTRODUCTION
Zoning
by-laws regulate land use in the United States. These laws divide the land
user by intensity. The intensity-lowest users are single family residences
and the intensity-highest users are high-rise apartments and business or
industrial buildings.
Zoning laws have different
requirements depending on the intensity of usage. For example, a single
family residence would have to leave a certain amount of land open (for
trees, shrubs and grass or greenspace) in
their front, side and backyard under the law. An amendment to the law is
needed to change these requirements.
However, in each city
there is a Board
of Minor Variance which has the power to grant "relief" to its residents without amending the zoning laws. Under the law, violations in zoning are
allowed when they are "justified." The Board of Minor Variance
considers hundreds of requests
each year.
WEB PAGES ON MINOR VARIANCE
WEB PAGES ON ZONING
Part Two
investigates who the applicants are, what part of the city they're from,
what they're requesting and most importantly, how many acres of trees,
shrubs and grass (greenspace) was lost
in Austin during most of 1996 without amending zoning laws.
For best results, please use at least an HTML
4+ browser, preferably Netscape,
to view Part Two.
