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zoning ordinance can become cluttered and needlessly complex. Incorporating the Standard Industrial Classification Manual (U.S. Department of Commerce 1977) into a zoning ordinance, as suggested by Dotson and Epstein (1950), solves the problem of unlisted uses and simplifies and streamlines the ordinance. The SIC Manual was de- veloped for use in classifying establishments by their type of economic activity in order to promote collection and analysis ol compatible statistics describing the var- ious facets of the national economy. The SIC system is intended to cover the entire field of economic activities: agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, and trapping; mining; construction; manufacturing; transportation; communication; electric, gas, and sanitary services; wholesale and retail trade; finance, insurance, and real estate; personal, business, repair, and other services; and public administration. It is relatively simple for regulatory officials to review the SIC Manual and to classify and assign uses to each zoning district by SIC code. The SICManual uses a nine- digit classification code and lists more than 20,000 eco- nomic activities in detail; the four-digit level is sufficient, however, for almost all economic activities that will be regulated in most zoning ordinances. The table of per- mitted uses can be converted to include reference to the SIC code groups considered locally appropriate for each district. Figure 1, from the Beaumont, Texas, zoning or- dinance, illustrates how some of the SIC groups were integrated into the list of permitted uses. Because the SIC Manual provides an existing, uniform, nationally understood and accepted economic classifi- cation system, its use can eliminate almost all definitions from a zoning ordinance, thus simplifying the text greatly. At the same time it makes the ordinance more comprehensive, because there is less chance of leaving out a use or group of uses that should have been listed, and it reduces the potential for misinterpretation and resulting conflict. Officials in Beaumont report that it has been easy to determine the required zoning for each of 4,000 uses requested since they adopted the SIC sys- tem in 1981 by reference either to the zoning ordinance or to the SIC Manual; all requested uses were listed in one or both of the sources, and there has been no need to seek interpretation of the ordinance intent. Douglas Clark, director of the Development Services Department for the City of Costa Mesa, California, also has indicated that ]'6s dty's zoning classification system, based on the SIC Manual, has been very successful. Summary Zoning ordinances should be reviewed and revised regularly in order to be kept current and up to date. The heart of the traditional zoning ordinance is the list of uses permitted in the various zoning districts; it is important that this element of the ordinance be given special attention and care. In particular, communities should place increased emphasis on linking planning to zoning by relating the various zoning districts to the land use proposals in the local comprehensive plan and by replacing cumulative zoning with express-purpose zoning. Communities also can make their zoning or- dinances more effective by simplifying them substan- tially. References City of Beaumont, Texas. 1982. Zoning ordinance. City of Dallas, Texas. 1983. Planning policies issue paper. Dolson, Bruce, and Herbert Epstein. 1980. Pare down that zoning ordinance. Planning 46, 1: 16-20. Toll, Seymour. 1969. Zoned America. New York: Grossman. U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards. 1977. Standard industrial classification manual. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. 86 APA JOURNAL