The legal practice of land use and zoning relates to those areas of the law which involve local, state and even federal efforts to control and dictate the manner in which f private land may be used and developed either through regulation or through governmental incentives.  It can include both the substantive and the procedural local, state and federal laws regulating the environment and ensuring a place for environmental concerns in public decision-making.  It can also include federal, state, and local programs to protect significant historic and archeological resources; local subdivision, site planning, zoning and mapping laws; and the use by all levels of government of incentives, whether through the tax system or special governmental powers to encourage and support desirable development in the community for which such governmental authority has jurisdiction.

The land use practitioner brings an understanding of these laws and programs and how they relate to each other to any one of the variety of roles: counseling, planning, structuring, and negotiating a private real estate