This course provides a certification as a planning and zoning resource through NAR’s Center for Realtor® Development. Planning and zoning serve as the basis for all communities—the communities of your past and present, as well as communities of the future. This course will teach you the basic components and processes of the planning and zoning phases of real estate development, and how these phases lead us to a better way of developing communities through the application of smart growth principles. You will learn how to not only strengthen your business but also become an advocate for smart, sustainable, equitable growth in your community. Understand how “planning and zoning” are two simple terms that lay the foundation for every town and community in the United States.

Learning Objectives

1. Have a greater understanding of the visioning, planning, and zoning process to empower you as a community advocate and as a real estate professional.
2. Use practical skills and strategies to strengthen your business by helping to create more environmentally sustainable, equitable, and financially resilient communities.
3. Summarize how understanding planning, zoning, and smart growth benefits your community and your business.
4. Discuss ways in which you can network and be an advocate in the planning and zoning process for smarter, more inclusive communities while also growing your business.
5. Summarize how zoning has evolved and how this history has discriminated against and negatively impacted historically marginalized communities.
6. Define smart growth and summarize its general features.
7. Explain the factors that will drive community planning and development now and in the future.