This act was one of the foundational developments in land use planning in the United States.
The zoning advisory committee that wrote the standard act was formed in the U.S. Department of Commerce in September 1921.
[2] The act itself is nine sections with annotations mostly describing the committee's choice of words.
[3] The SZEA was first issued in August 1922, was reissued in revised form in January 1923, and was first printed in May 1924.
[1] The American Planning Association wrote that the SZEA and the Standard City Planning Enabling Act of 1927 "laid the basic foundation for land development controls in the U.S."[5]