A zoning law is a community’s guide to its future development. A landowner can look at the zoning map and regulations and know that if he follows them, he has a right to use his land in a certain way and that neighboring property is subject to the same restrictions. But, because all land in the district is subject to the same rules and because no two parcels of land are precisely the same, problems can arise.

As proclaimed by the State’s highest court: “The creation of a board of appeals, with discretionary powers to meet specific cases of hardship or specific instances of improper classification, is not to destroy zoning as a policy, but to save it. The property of citizens cannot and ought not to be placed within a strait-jacket. Not only may there be grievous injury caused by the immediate act of zoning, but time itself works changes which require adjustment. What might be reasonable today might not be reasonable tomorrow.” These observations concerning the importance of boards of appeals will be relevant as long as zoning exists.