Rezoning Single Family to Duplex

[Anthony Fontana]

Has anybody had any luck rezoning a single family into a duplex. I just acquired a "duplex" from a wholesaler and ended up realizing that the property is not zoned for the building that we acquired. Long story short, we have to rezone the "single family" to a duplex. Does anybody have any experience doing this? I know if varies from town to town, but looking for advice.

[Matt Devincenzo]

You need to go ask the planning department, and maybe look for a GOOD land use and entitlements consultant....that could be an attorney, a civil engineer or a separate specialized land use consultant. I do that sort of work in San Diego and we are a Civil firm, but not all civil firms 'do' the land use stuff. But you need to find someone local that really knows the local criteria and requirements.

At the end of the day if the property is a SFR, zoned SFR and in a long range planned SFR zone....you're likely not going to be successful in changing the property's use. Re-zoning for development is usually done on a large scale because the impacts for traffic and public infrastructure are based on the land use....analyzing for one lot can of course be done, and may have little to no impact, but the cost to do so is likely not worth it. That is why if it isn't already in the long range plan it may very well be a lost cause.