Cities and counties break the land in their jurisdictions up into various zones. Each zone tends to have a list of usages that are permitted outright; e.g. you can put a residence in a residential zone, you can put a business in a commercial zone, but the permissions are oftentimes somewhat limiting. For example, Salem’s Single Family Residential zone in section 511.005 outright permits a single family residential zone to have single family detached dwellings, manufactured dwelling parks, manufactured homes, and residential homes as defined under ORS 197.660 [e.g. adult foster home providing residential care]. It permits nonprofit shelters for victims of domestic violence serving 10 or fewer people, it permits libraries and parks [but not arboreta and botanical gardens], daycare homes [but not necessarily day care centers], and many other things. Each city and county is allowed to establish the zone uses in their development code, so mileage may vary city by city and county by county.
Some items in that zone however, are labeled as “special uses” or as “conditional uses” or as “prohibited uses.”
A prohibited use is quite straightforward. You can’t use the land that way. Hence, no laboratory research in residential zone Salem, no airports, no cemeteries, no surface mining operations, etc.
“Special uses” are defined under chapter 700 of the Salem Unified Development Code, they are uses where the property can be utilized in certain ways, but only within certain zones and overlays. So for instance, under SMC 700.015, you can slap a commercial golf course into a single family residential zone as long as the course follows specific setback rules and screening rules. Other cities and counties may have special use permissions, but what is a special use in one place may not be a special use elsewhere.
“Conditional uses” are usages that are similar to permitted uses, but require an additional determination by the municipality or county that the proposed usage of the land is not going to have negative impacts on nearby areas. It tends to swivel around the impact of the usage. So while in a Salem single family residential zone you can open a daycare home without issue [facility serving at most 16 children and certified under ORS 329A.280 or registered under ORS 329A.330], you have to ask the city for permission to open a day care center [certified child care facility other than a family child care home]. That’s not to say that a person cannot open a day care center in residential zone Salem, only that you have a steeper permission hill to climb to get to that use.
For the broker, it may be important to understand the zones and permissions in your cities and counties, or to know the person at the city or county who can answer those questions. If a wealthy buyer wants to buy 320 acres of land to build a private residence, but also intends to put in a private airport for themselves (true story, actually happened), it’s important to know what it means when the city says “that requires a conditional use permit,” because that answer is not inherently the city saying “no,” rather the city is saying “no, for right now, but apply and we’ll see…”