Contract zoning in the United States is a land use regulation where a local zoning authority accommodates a private interest by rezoning a district or a parcel of land within that district, on the condition that the limitations or restrictions set by the town for those parcels are accepted by the owner. The conditions are not necessarily applied to other similarly zoned parcels.
Courts have ruled contract zoning unconstitutional because the legislative body authorized to adopt zoning ordinances cannot delegate that power.
The key distinction between illegal contract zoning and permissible conditional zoning is transparency of the public process and the extent to which the legislative body agrees to written specifics in the zoning ordinance. The degree to which the conditions imposed on the agreement to re-zone are deemed to be in the public interest or to merely benefit the private land interest is also sometimes discussed. A Florida court said this: "A rule which would forbid owners from announcing concessions to the public interest in any proceeding before a zoning authority would not be in the best interest of the public." <The Florida Bar Journal, February 2007, Volume 81, No.2;[1]> See also, ZONING: A REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONAL'S GUIDE, by Reid C. Wilson, Wilson, Cribbs & Goren, P.C. 2500 Fannin Street, Houston, Texas 77002, presented March 8, 2006 in Houston, TX [2]>