The Model Zoning Ordinance, Guidelines and Land Use Table has been designed by the US Composting Council for use by municipalities and communities in the United States.

Its intent is to provide baseline ordinance language collected from research into existing zoning ordinance text and land use classification tables across the U.S. as a “best practice” for zoning ordinances, to help municipalities which do not have ordinances in place to address applications for small-scale (a/k/a “community” or “decentralized” composting), large-scale (a/k/a “industrial” or “commercial”) composting, and agricultural (a/k/a on-farm) composting facilities.

The assumption is that each community will apply its own geographic, cultural, political and environmental reality to the template and modify it as needed. To assist with this process, this document includes background discussion to assist with decisions in areas covered by the ordinance.

The Guidelines provide background for decision makers as they draft an ordinance specific to their own jurisdiction.

The USCC thanks the Zoning Task Force, chaired by Marcus Zbinden, Carver County, for its hard work. Members included Neil Edgar, California Compost Coalition, Jorge Montezuma, Atlas Organics, Angel Arroyo-Rodriguez, Ohio EPA, Eileen Banyra, Community Compost Co., (who donated valuable planning expertise), Brian Freeman, Robinson & Cole, and Kourtnii Brown, Common Compost.