“A land use moratorium is a local enactment which temporarily suspends a landowner’s right to obtain development approvals while the community considers and potentially adopts changes to its comprehensive plan and/or its land use regulations to address new circumstances not addressed by its current laws.
A moratorium on development therefore preserves the status quo while the municipality updates its comprehensive plan. A moratorium is designed to halt development temporarily, pending the completion and possible adoption of more permanent, comprehensive regulations.
The objective of municipal land use controls is to promote community planning values by properly regulating land development. It follows that land use controls work best when built upon a carefully considered comprehensive plan. It takes time to put together or to update a good community plan. During this time, demand for a particular use of land may arise for which there are inadequate or nonexistent controls. If the community allows development during that time, the ultimate worth of the eventual plan could be undermined. For these reasons, moratoria and other forms of interim zoning controls are often needed to “freeze” development until a satisfactory final plan or regulations are adopted. “
read the entire article
Coon, James A. Division of Local Government Services 2010.