Performance zoning can promote natural resource protection by

• A. Promotes natural resource protection and can limit adverse impacts on neighboring properties.
• B. Reduces development flexibility.
• C. Encourages development without regard to environmental constraints.
• D. Increases energy consumption.

Answer: (A)

Performance zoning focuses on achieving measurable outcomes for development, rather than prescribing exact designs or uses. By setting performance standards that protect natural resources—such as limiting impervious surfaces, maintaining buffers, controlling runoff, protecting habitats, and meeting water quality goals—it guides projects to reduce environmental impact while allowing flexible design approaches to meet those outcomes. This approach can also limit adverse effects on neighboring properties by requiring mitigation for potential nuisances like runoff, erosion, or habitat disruption.

So the best choice captures how performance zoning promotes natural resource protection and helps prevent spillover impacts to nearby parcels. The other options describe effects that don’t align with the purpose of performance zoning: it doesn’t inherently reduce development flexibility (it often enhances flexibility by focusing on outcomes rather than rigid prescriptions), it doesn’t encourage development without regard to environmental constraints, and it doesn’t inherently increase energy consumption.