City Planning Commission
Zoning & Land Use

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Webster's Dictionary defines zoning as "to arrange in or mark off into zones; specifically : to partition (a city, borough, or township) by ordinance into sections reserved for different purposes (as residence or business)". The City of Detroit has many zoning classifications which, in general, keep similar land uses together. For example, an industrial use is not permitted to locate in the middle of a residential area because the zoning for the residential area prohibits it. The zoning classifications are broken down into districts for residential, commercial, and industrial uses. There are also several special districts intended for certain areas or for certain types of development.

The  zoning ordinance is available for download in Adobe Acrobat® format. If you choose to download it, please be advised that the file is quite large, and may take a considerable amount of time to download. If you are having problems downloading the Acrobat version, click your right mouse button and choose the "Save target as..." option. This will give you the option of saving the file onto your local computer.

The text of the City's new Zoning Ordinance is not yet available from the Municipal Code Corporation.  The zoning maps are, however, at that site.  The following steps are required to access them:

1. expand the "Preliminaries" folder in the index frame at the left of the page by clicking the minus sign (not the words)
2. select "ARTICLE XV. ZONING MAPS"
3. double-click on the map you want in the right-hand pane to open it

Once the map is open, you can either save it to your local PC, view it, or print it.  The images are large, so viewing may take several minutes.  Please note, the maps and text on this site on this website are for informational purposes only.  You should verify zoning information with Planning Commission staff before making final decisions.  The City Code is also available. 

The ordinance is available on CD-ROM from this office for $3.

A summary of the ordinance is available for download or on-line viewing, in Adobe Acrobat format.

Copies of  Chapter 61 of the Detroit City Code, the Zoning Ordinance, updated through December 5, 2005, are available at all Detroit Public Library branches for use and review.