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 August 2024 to August 2026.

116 counties, 9,458 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 August 2024 to August 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	546	78%	6%	16%
Nashville-Davidson County, TN	374	77%	4%	19%
Boston, MA	361	92%	2%	6%
Houston, TX	313	76%	2%	23%
Tulsa, OK	289	86%	3%	11%
Chicago, IL	264	97%	0%	3%
Louisville, KY	231	86%	5%	10%
Las Vegas, NV	228	82%	7%	11%
San Francisco, CA	213	81%	7%	12%
Clark County, NV	209	89%	4%	8%
Bismarck, ND	202	92%	5%	2%
Orange County, FL	197	86%	6%	8%
Jacksonville, FL	188	86%	2%	12%
Cobb County, GA	181	60%	10%	30%
Jersey City, NJ	156	73%	7%	20%
Columbus, OH	148	89%	3%	9%
Atlanta, GA	143	59%	11%	29%
Raleigh, NC	135	76%	4%	20%
Hawaii County, HI	134	87%	1%	13%
New York City, NY	120	84%	0%	16%
Chesterfield County, VA	114	80%	5%	15%
Omaha, NE	113	88%	4%	8%
Polk County, FL	109	84%	6%	9%
Lancaster County, SC	103	81%	14%	6%
Milwaukee, WI	97	95%	0%	5%
Hillsborough County, FL	96	82%	5%	13%
San Jose, CA	96	91%	3%	6%
Norwalk, CT	90	59%	4%	37%
Pima County, AZ	90	92%	1%	7%
Pasco County, FL	88	67%	0%	33%
Tucson, AZ	88	88%	6%	7%
Dallas, TX	86	64%	9%	27%
Charlotte, NC	86	80%	3%	16%
Fort Wayne, IN	85	80%	4%	16%
Fairfax County, VA	80	91%	0%	9%
Los Angeles, CA	78	72%	21%	8%
Springfield, MO	77	87%	6%	6%
Stafford County, VA	77	87%	4%	9%
Lake County, FL	73	79%	8%	12%
St. Joseph County, IN	72	79%	6%	15%
Mobile, AL	69	77%	6%	17%
St. Lucie County, FL	68	56%	3%	41%
Loudoun County, VA	66	68%	3%	29%
Overland Park, KS	64	92%	0%	8%
Fort Worth, TX	64	69%	13%	19%
Hanover County, VA	64	66%	17%	17%
Wayne Township, NJ	64	69%	2%	30%
Austin, TX	63	63%	3%	33%
New Orleans, LA	62	58%	11%	31%
Prince George's County, MD	61	79%	3%	18%
Miami, FL	60	90%	2%	8%
Denver, CO	59	88%	2%	10%
Boulder County, CO	59	83%	3%	14%
Maricopa County, AZ	56	79%	5%	16%
Allentown, PA	56	73%	9%	18%
Franklin, TN	53	89%	6%	6%
Green Bay, WI	53	92%	6%	2%
Laramie County, WY	53	75%	0%	25%
Douglas County, CO	51	88%	2%	10%
Long Beach, CA	50	96%	2%	2%
Santa Clara, CA	50	82%	4%	14%
Weld County, CO	49	92%	2%	6%
Leander, TX	48	81%	8%	10%
Philadelphia, PA	48	98%	0%	2%
Phoenix, AZ	47	91%	0%	9%
Coweta County, GA	46	87%	4%	9%
Riverside County, CA	44	98%	0%	2%
Missoula County, MT	44	95%	0%	5%
College Station, TX	44	95%	2%	2%
New Albany, OH	43	77%	7%	16%
Deschutes County, OR	42	76%	2%	21%
Prince William County, VA	42	90%	5%	5%
Miami-Dade County, FL	40	65%	5%	30%
Colleyville, TX	40	80%	10%	10%
Mansfield, TX	40	75%	15%	10%
Spotsylvania County, VA	40	68%	8%	25%
Memphis, TN	40	78%	20%	3%
Dover, NH	40	75%	10%	15%
Maui County, HI	39	69%	0%	31%
Salt Lake City, UT	39	74%	18%	8%
Eagle Mountain, UT	39	82%	10%	8%
Monticello, MN	39	92%	8%	0%
Broward County, FL	37	84%	5%	11%
Mesa, AZ	34	94%	0%	6%
Fontana, CA	33	88%	6%	6%
Pueblo County, CO	33	79%	0%	21%
Tarrant County, TX	32	97%	3%	0%
Minnehaha County, SD	32	97%	0%	3%
Martin County, FL	30	93%	3%	3%
Jacksonville, NC	30	90%	7%	3%
Gulfport, MS	28	86%	0%	14%
Caddo Parish, LA	28	82%	0%	18%
South Burlington, VT	28	25%	0%	75%
San Diego County, CA	27	93%	0%	7%
Baltimore, MD	27	93%	0%	7%
San Diego, CA	27	93%	0%	7%
Lewiston, ME	27	85%	0%	15%
Pittsburgh, PA	27	81%	0%	19%
Dayton, MN	27	85%	7%	7%
Pinellas County, FL	26	96%	4%	0%
Indianapolis, IN	26	77%	15%	8%
Nottingham, NH	25	76%	8%	16%
Citrus County, FL	24	79%	21%	0%
Providence, RI	24	71%	0%	29%
Storey County, NV	24	96%	0%	4%
Los Angeles County, CA	23	96%	0%	4%
Napa County, CA	23	65%	4%	30%
Albuquerque, NM	23	52%	39%	9%
Morgantown, WV	22	73%	9%	18%
Willmar, MN	21	81%	5%	14%
Kuna, ID	21	67%	24%	10%
Buffalo, MN	21	95%	0%	5%
Livonia, MI	20	80%	15%	5%
Greenville, SC	20	90%	5%	5%
Conway, AR	20	80%	0%	20%
West Des Moines, IA	20	90%	5%	5%

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 August 2024 to August 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 (45)

We track these counties but hold their rate until the sample is large enough to report honestly: Archuleta County, CO; Bexar County, TX; Box Elder County, UT; Brazoria County, TX; Butte County, CA; Charleston, WV; Cook County, IL; Dakota County, MN; Douglas County, NE; East Hartford, CT; Fremont, CA; Fresno, 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, CA; 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; San Mateo County, CA; 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; Wyandotte County, KS.