"use Code" Vs. Zoning

[hastalavista]

Maybe I misinterpreted your original post: I take it you haven't seen the appraisal yet?

Has it been ordered?

As a rule, if you are ordering the appraisal as a 4-unit and the appraiser finds that there is a conflict with the zoning ("illegal") they will typically stop the assignment and call for instructions.
So, if you are brokering the loan, my advice is this:
A. Ask your borrower if they've ever had any issues about the zoning.
B. Ask your borrower if they know if there were any non-permitted additions made to the property.
C. Order the appraisal; the rest is up to the appraiser.

Good luck!

 

[Meandering]

Your thinking is flawed, in believing that the number behind the R is representative of the number of units. There is no hard stop for how districts can designate their zoning abbreviations. We have a township that uses A, B, C and D for residential rural, residential medium density, commercial and all else needs a permit.

More than likely, the municipality has 3 or 4 different residential zoning sub zones. One for single family on an acre or more, one for medium density single family, one for high density single family including multi-units, and one for single family combined with ecological conservation, or historic preservation, or airport impact, or anything else they want to designate.

The only way to know for sure what they mean is to call the municipality and ask them, or look it up on their website, or, expect to have to buy their zoning book, if they are like some places here.

Otherwise, all else is unreliable to answer your original question.

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I am licensed in both states for Real estate sales and mortgage. Nice investigative work on the new guy..

However, I would have expected licensed people to understand zoning.

And we need to deeply consider "New Guys", cause some of them aren't new, and some are just Trolls for AMCs, trying to side step competency.


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[gregb]

Riverside County R3 Zoning

http://planning.rctlma.org/Portals/0/zoning/ordnance/ord348a.html#article_viii

 

[jay trotta]

Perhaps it's Review time for you........Use & Code ? Code Compliance is within the municipality, therefore any changes would require being compliant and Use & Code may not directly reflect "Code Compliance" issues approved.

 

[Walter Kirk]

One of the more frustrating aspects of commenting on zoning issues is that in many cases the names of zoning districts are confusing. In my area a property zoned R-2 in one town may allow a two family residence while an R-2 zoned property in the next town may only allow a single family residence on a differently sized lot than an R-1. It would make more sense if zoning district names and regulations were standardized.

 

[frank7]

Dennis - I already asked to see the most recent appraisal, all they have is a BPO .
Really good advice about it maybe having a 5th unit at one point. Thanks

Marion - I understand zoning quite well. But in all my years of researching title in California have not seen it differ the way it does on this property profile from Fidelity Title. As Walter mentioned, the adjacent town could interpret R2 or R3 entirely different yet be in the same county. I think an east coast appraiser may be very surprised with some of the inconsistencies in California.

 

[Meandering]

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Dennis - I already asked to see the most recent appraisal, all they have is a BPO .
Really good advice about it maybe having a 5th unit at one point. Thanks

Marion - I understand zoning quite well. But in all my years of researching title in California have not seen it differ the way it does on this property profile from Fidelity Title. As Walter mentioned, the adjacent town could interpret R2 or R3 entirely different yet be in the same county. I think an east coast appraiser may be very surprised with some of the inconsistencies in California.

I hear you.

I believe costal folks would be shocked at the lack of zoning or lack of details in some fly over zoning.

Some fiefdoms don't feel the need to micro-manage as much as others.

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[hastalavista]

Dennis - I already asked to see the most recent appraisal, all they have is a BPO .

A good example where an appraisal would be required to have provided meaningful information that a BPO is not required to provide. (And I realize it wasn't up to you to order the BPO)

 

[Mark K]

'R1-6" here stands for Residential District 1-6 with R1 being low density (less than 2/acre) with R6 allowing apartments with up to 24/acre (In this town). Next town over has only R1-3 with R2 allowing up to 4 units/lot and R3 allowing up to 8/lot (depending on lot coverage). PUD allows for residential or commercial/industrial.

Use code has NO correlation to zoning here. Example: used for farmland, Zoned Commercial or Residential is common. Use Code is for assessor use to determine tax rate. Land zoned Industrial worth $100K/acre is taxed at $2,000/acre if it has corn growing on it.

Next county over has no "R" designation, only "D" for Density. Zone D1 allows basically the same as R1 in this county.

Its all local; get a copy of the zoning ordinance and research.

 

[The Warrior Monk]

As others noted, use codes and zoning are often two entirely different things. In some areas, they have nothing to do with each other. For example, in the areas I work, the use code simply describes the use of the property for purposes of taxation, regardless of whether the use is legal or illegal.