Spot Zoning

Spot zoning is the application of zoning to a specific parcel of land within a larger zoned area when the rezoning is usually at odds with a city's master plan and current zoning restrictions. The rezoning may be for the benefit of a particular owner, and at odds with pre-existing adjacent property owners. The Standard State Zoning Enabling Act states "all such regulations shall be uniform for each class or kind of building throughout each district." Courts may rule certain instances of spot zoning as illegal.

Such a change may have a legitimate use, such as when a community wishes to have more local control of land use. This may occur in a rural county which has no zoning at all, where a village or hamlet may wish to maintain its characteristic feel and historic appeal (often to protect tourism), without adding another layer of local government and taxes by creating a municipality. The county designates the boundaries (often that of an already census-designated place) and maintain regulations through the county commission instead of a separate town council.

It may also be invalid as an "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable treatment" of a limited parcel of land by a local zoning ordinance. It is an invalid exercise of authority, if spot zoning is not a right conferred upon the body by the state's zoning enabling statute, because it deviates from the plan set out by the enabling statute.