Zoning approval rates by county

Name: US zoning approval rates by county
Creator: ZoneWire
License: https://www.zonewire.co/terms

How often local boards approve, deny, or continue land-use requests, measured from the decisions on the public record. Covering October 2024 to October 2026.

123 counties, 11,746 decided decisions. Updated daily. Every county below clears a floor of 20 decided decisions.

Highest approval rates

Highest denial rates

Most active counties

Every covered county

Sort by any column. Percentages are shares of decided decisions from October 2024 to October 2026. Use Copy stat to grab a ready-to-cite sentence with the county, the number, and the date range.

Cross-county land-use approval, denial, and continuance rates, sortable by column
County	Decisions (n) ↓	Approved	Denied	Continued
San Antonio, TX	658	80%	6%	14%
Nashville-Davidson County, TN	439	77%	4%	19%
Houston, TX	412	76%	2%	22%
Boston, MA	403	92%	2%	6%
Tulsa, OK	350	86%	4%	10%
Chicago, IL	328	97%	0%	3%
San Francisco, CA	265	80%	8%	12%
Bismarck, ND	258	93%	4%	3%
Jacksonville, FL	247	83%	1%	16%
Clark County, NV	243	88%	4%	8%
Louisville, KY	231	86%	5%	10%
Las Vegas, NV	230	82%	7%	10%
Orange County, FL	228	87%	6%	7%
Cobb County, GA	227	59%	12%	30%
Raleigh, NC	192	78%	4%	19%
Jersey City, NJ	188	74%	6%	20%
New York City, NY	166	80%	2%	19%
Atlanta, GA	163	62%	10%	28%
Hawaii County, HI	156	85%	1%	15%
Polk County, FL	154	86%	5%	9%
Columbus, OH	149	89%	3%	9%
Chesterfield County, VA	148	79%	5%	16%
Fairfax County, VA	139	91%	0%	9%
Omaha, NE	134	89%	4%	7%
Fort Wayne, IN	132	86%	2%	11%
New Orleans, LA	131	69%	8%	23%
Milwaukee, WI	121	96%	0%	4%
Stafford County, VA	115	86%	3%	11%
Dallas, TX	114	66%	8%	26%
San Jose, CA	114	91%	3%	6%
Lancaster County, SC	114	79%	15%	6%
Hillsborough County, FL	105	80%	6%	14%
Norwalk, CT	105	58%	5%	37%
Charlotte, NC	102	82%	3%	15%
Lake County, FL	99	79%	9%	12%
Springfield, MO	99	86%	5%	9%
Tucson, AZ	96	85%	5%	9%
Prince George's County, MD	95	83%	2%	15%
Pasco County, FL	91	67%	0%	33%
Pima County, AZ	90	92%	1%	7%
Hanover County, VA	88	73%	15%	13%
Wayne Township, NJ	86	69%	1%	30%
Overland Park, KS	83	93%	0%	7%
St. Joseph County, IN	81	80%	6%	14%
Los Angeles, CA	80	73%	20%	8%
Miami, FL	79	91%	1%	8%
St. Lucie County, FL	79	54%	3%	43%
Franklin, TN	78	92%	4%	4%
Mobile, AL	76	70%	5%	25%
Austin, TX	74	62%	3%	35%
Loudoun County, VA	74	68%	5%	27%
Green Bay, WI	68	87%	12%	1%
Douglas County, CO	66	89%	3%	8%
Laramie County, WY	66	79%	0%	21%
Santa Clara, CA	64	81%	3%	16%
Fort Worth, TX	64	69%	13%	19%
Denver, CO	63	86%	2%	13%
Leander, TX	63	81%	11%	8%
Weld County, CO	63	90%	5%	5%
Dover, NH	62	74%	8%	18%
Phoenix, AZ	61	93%	0%	7%
Prince William County, VA	61	90%	5%	5%
Boulder County, CO	61	84%	3%	13%
Mansfield, TX	60	77%	12%	12%
Broward County, FL	58	88%	3%	9%
Long Beach, CA	58	97%	2%	2%
Allentown, PA	57	72%	9%	19%
Philadelphia, PA	57	98%	0%	2%
Maricopa County, AZ	56	79%	5%	16%
Maui County, HI	55	67%	5%	27%
New Albany, OH	55	71%	15%	15%
Memphis, TN	54	81%	17%	2%
Missoula County, MT	53	96%	0%	4%
College Station, TX	52	96%	2%	2%
Coweta County, GA	52	85%	8%	8%
Riverside County, CA	51	98%	0%	2%
Spotsylvania County, VA	51	73%	8%	20%
Eagle Mountain, UT	51	84%	10%	6%
Miami-Dade County, FL	50	64%	10%	26%
Salt Lake City, UT	48	77%	15%	8%
Colleyville, TX	48	83%	8%	8%
Mesa, AZ	46	96%	0%	4%
Monticello, MN	46	87%	13%	0%
Dayton, MN	45	89%	4%	7%
Jacksonville, NC	44	91%	7%	2%
Martin County, FL	42	90%	5%	5%
Deschutes County, OR	42	76%	2%	21%
Greenville, SC	41	90%	7%	2%
Nottingham, NH	40	80%	8%	13%
Tarrant County, TX	39	95%	5%	0%
Albuquerque, NM	39	62%	31%	8%
Minnehaha County, SD	39	95%	3%	3%
Fontana, CA	37	89%	5%	5%
Pueblo County, CO	36	81%	0%	19%
Pittsburgh, PA	36	81%	0%	19%
Gulfport, MS	34	79%	0%	21%
Indianapolis, IN	34	79%	15%	6%
San Diego County, CA	31	94%	0%	6%
Citrus County, FL	30	80%	17%	3%
Baltimore, MD	29	93%	0%	7%
Los Angeles County, CA	29	97%	0%	3%
San Diego, CA	29	90%	0%	10%
Napa County, CA	29	66%	3%	31%
Pinellas County, FL	29	97%	3%	0%
Caddo Parish, LA	29	83%	0%	17%
Lewiston, ME	29	86%	0%	14%
Providence, RI	28	75%	0%	25%
Storey County, NV	28	93%	0%	7%
South Burlington, VT	28	25%	0%	75%
Buffalo, MN	26	96%	0%	4%
Livonia, MI	25	72%	20%	8%
East Hartford, CT	25	76%	0%	24%
Wyandotte County, KS	24	67%	17%	17%
Kuna, ID	24	63%	21%	17%
Willmar, MN	23	83%	4%	13%
West Des Moines, IA	23	91%	4%	4%
Archuleta County, CO	23	91%	9%	0%
Morgantown, WV	23	74%	9%	17%
Fresno, CA	22	82%	0%	18%
Conway, AR	22	77%	0%	23%
San Mateo County, CA	21	86%	5%	10%
Oakland, CA	20	90%	0%	10%
Brazoria County, TX	20	95%	5%	0%

Download all counties (CSV)Per county: append ?county=slug to the CSV link.

How we count

Every rate comes from the official record. We capture public city council, county commission, and planning board meetings, transcribe the audio, and pull the land-use decisions and their outcomes. Each decision links back to the meeting it came from, so you can check it against the source.

A decision counts once, in one of three buckets: approved (including approvals with conditions), denied, or continued (tabled, deferred, or continued to a later date). Approval rate is approvals divided by all three. Withdrawn items are left out, since pulling a request is not a board decision on the merits. General board business that is not land use, such as proclamations, grants, and contracts, is excluded.

The window runs October 2024 to October 2026. A county appears only after it reaches 20 decided decisions in that window, so a thin sample never turns into a headline rate. The full data is available as CSV above, and the same numbers feed each county page and our machine-readable summary.

Counties below the 20-decision floor (38)

We track these counties but hold their rate until the sample is large enough to report honestly: Bexar County, TX; Box Elder County, UT; Butte County, CA; Charleston, WV; Cook County, IL; Dakota County, MN; Douglas County, NE; Fremont, CA; Fulton County, GA; Hennepin County, MN; Hillsborough Township, NJ; Huntsville, AL; Juneau, AK; King County, WA; Lawrence County, TN; Loveland, CO; Mecklenburg County, NC; Mount Pleasant, WI; New Castle County, DE; Newton County, GA; Oakland County, MI; Port Washington, WI; Portland, OR; Portland Metro, OR; Ramsey County, MN; Rancho Cordova, CA; Sacramento, CA; Saint Paul, MN; Salt Lake County, UT; Santa Cruz County, AZ; Sarpy County, NE; Scottsdale, AZ; Seattle, WA; Snohomish County, WA; Sugar Land, TX; Tulsa County, OK; Washtenaw County, MI; Westchester County, NY.