Lot configurations and plat plans

Some issues regarding lot sizes and configuarations are:

• Lot sizes can be very small, perhaps containing 500 square feet or so, and they can be as big as several hundred acres. It depends on the age of the community or county and the amount of open land that is available.
   
• Generally speaking, most older cities have land use zoning where lots are standard square or oblong. These lots range from 2,500 square feet in size to 43,560 square feet in cities and much larger in the open spaces of counties.
   
• Occasional odd-shaped lots occur when natural boundaries are found. Pie-shaped lots occur when streets can’t be laid out on a grid system and turnarounds (cul de sacs) need to be created to facilitate motorists' use of the street.

Plat plans
Many people confuse certain terms often used by land use planners and municipal attorneys:

• lot line: a line drawn on a document that shows the boundaries of a given piece of real property. The document can be recorded at the recorder of deeds offices.
   
• real property: real estate
   
• building line: the line within which an improvement (building) can be constructed.
   
• yards: the areas, front, rear and each side, that must be maintained as yard or open space.
   
• setback lines: The distance from the front, rear or sides that a building may not be constructed within.

It's typical for a community to limit the amount of square footage of a lot that can be improved (have a building constructed on it). The square footage often was 60 percent of the land, but this is not always the case.

Check with the community in which you are interested. Frequently, communities will allow variances to their rules if necessity can be illustrated and proven.

Brief history of land use controls
In North America, land use controls were imposed on early settlers almost at the beginning of the colonization period.

At first, fire protection was the utmost responsibility, but as the population expanded and land became somewhat more difficult to obtain, controls were expanded for the common good of the residents.

Not much has changed in the last 300 years. The notion of controlling lot sizes is still the same.

Setting boundaries
Early settlers found it convenient to follow the meandering of brooks, streams and rivers to set boundaries. Later they used the edges of roads, railroads, canals and mountain foothills.

These early boundary lines provided an interesting configuration of fences, tree rows, hedgerows, stonewalls and so forth. These intrusions to the norm became pleasing to the eye.

Today, landscape planners and architects design odd-shaped lots and streets with curves, to make their development projects pleasing to the eye. This trend is a carryover from colonial days.

We also have many neighborhoods that date back to the days when cities, towns and villages were laid out in a simple grid system. Lots located therein are usually square or oblong.

Residential factors
Shortly after World War II, returning servicemen, clamoring for low-cost housing, prompted developers to create affordable housing in the suburbs adjacent to older cities. The agrarian migration from farm to cities caused an occupancy problem in the center of cities.

These two developments led to the laying out of subdivisions with larger lots to create more aesthetically pleasing neighborhoods. Because ownership of these properties required more affluence, the wherewithal to own motorhomes developed.

Naturally, pride of ownership and the need to protect one’s investment caused the residents to house their motorhomes on their residential lots. But many people who did not own motorhomes considered the vehicles to be an intrusion.