Neighborhoods of owner-occupied, single-family homes with garages on one-acre lots and tree-lined streets constitute an environment different from a three-story, renter-occupied apartment complex with a large asphalt parking area fronting the building. Neither residential area is compatible with the noise, activity and after-hours lighting of a commercial area, nor with an industrial building serviced by transport trucks and with grounds and employee parking secured by chain-link fencing. 

Zoning ordinances differ between communities because of preferred variations in, and various densities of, four primary land uses: agriculture, commercial, industrial and residential.  Enforcement can protect and retain existing land uses, and encourage specified types of new development in designated areas as preferred by the community.  Other types of zoning have evolved in recent decades which are based on performance or physical form or appearance, but ordinances based on land use are predominant throughout the region and across the nation.