Many of the hazard mitigation strategies implemented at the state and local level, particularly those in the hazard avoidance category, involve the use of "development management" methods such as zoning or direct legislation. While the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act (SZEA) of 1922 and the Standard State Planning Enabling Act (SPEA) of 1928 established the constitutional authority of states and localities to prepare land use plans and enact zoning, the legal framework for development management regulations today is established exclusively through state enabling legislation and varies significantly from state to state.

A state’s planning enabling legislation is one of the most important factors in determining how hazard mitigation can be implemented in a particular state. It affects how the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) is implemented and provides the framework for all state and local planning programs and implementing mechanisms. In order to better understand the hazard mitigation methods and strategies of a particular state or locality, it is necessary to understand that state’s planning and development control framework.

As part of its "Growing Smart" project to assist states in statutory reforms, the American Planning Association (APA) recently developed summaries of planning statutes of all 50 states. These summaries are designed to give a brief overview of the planning and land-use control authority in each state. The state statutes are evaluated for how they address the following topics:

• State planning, including the structure and authority of state agencies with the power to prepare plans
• State development control
• Regional and interstate planning authority
• Special purpose regional agencies
• Regional development control
• Local planning, including structure and authority of local planning commissions, such as authority to prepare comprehensive plans
• Local development control, including zoning and subdivision
• Specialized Adjudicatory Procedures
• State environmental policy acts (where they exist)
• Financing of Planning and Infrastructure
• Specialized Taxation and Tax Relief Devices

All of these policy areas could have significant impacts on the mitigation strategies used in each state and how effective they are. Some states have strong statewide planning programs and require local consistency with statewide plans while others have little or no state control over local planning. Most states fall somewhere in the middle with a mix of state and local planning and regulatory authorities.

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