An interim use is best defined as:
Correct Answer
D) A temporary use held until the best use is feasible
An interim use is a supportable temporary use pending a reasonably probable future use becoming feasible. It still must satisfy applicable legal, physical and economic conditions. A use requiring a permit or having lawful nonconforming status is not necessarily interim.
Why This Is the Correct Answer
Option D is correct because an interim use is a temporary use held until the reasonably probable future best use becomes feasible. It is the use to which a parcel is put before its transition to a future highest and best use. The interim use still must meet applicable legal, physical and economic conditions.
Why the Other Options Are Wrong
Option A: A use that requires special permits to operate
Option A is wrong because requiring special permits to operate does not define an interim use. A use that needs a permit may be permanent, and an interim use may need no special permit.
Option B: A use that violates the applicable zoning rules
Option B is wrong because an interim use is not defined as one that violates zoning rules. An interim use should be legally permissible like any use considered in highest and best use analysis.
Option C: A use that is legally non-conforming but allowed
Option C is wrong because a legally non-conforming use that is allowed is a different concept. Nonconforming status describes a use that no longer fits current zoning, which is not necessarily temporary or awaiting a future use.
Interim means in the meantime
An interim use fills the meantime until the future best use is ready. It is a placeholder, not a violation or a permit category.
How to use: Use the in-the-meantime link when a question asks you to define interim use.
Exam Tip
Look for the words temporary and future use in the answer. Options about permits or zoning status describe other concepts.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- -Confusing an interim use with a legal nonconforming use
- -Assuming an interim use can ignore legal requirements
- -Defining interim use by permit requirements
Concept Deep Dive
Analysis
This question tests the definition of an interim use in highest and best use analysis. An interim use is a temporary use of a property until its future highest and best use becomes feasible. It is not defined by permits, zoning violations or nonconforming status.
Background Knowledge
Highest and best use analysis considers what use is legally permissible, physically possible, financially feasible and maximally productive. When the ultimate use is not yet feasible, for example because demand has not arrived, the property may be held in an interim use, such as a parking lot awaiting development.
Real-World Application
A downtown lot is expected to support a mid-rise building once demand grows, but that development is not yet feasible. Meanwhile it operates as a surface parking lot, which the appraiser identifies as an interim use.
More Market Questions
Market analysis confirms that seller financing at 3%, versus a 6% market rate, increased a comparable sale price. What adjustment removes that financing premium?
At the same effective date, reliable value indications support $800,000 for continued use of a property as improved and $500,000 for its cleared site. Immediate demolition costs $100,000. These are the only feasible alternatives, with no other costs or timing differences. Which alternative has the higher net value?
Other relevant conditions equal, growth in the number of households with effective purchasing power in a market tends to have which effect?
In a lakefront market, paired sales show that direct water frontage has the largest price effect of any feature. Which approach to comparable selection best follows from this evidence?
Which circumstance can cause highest and best use as improved to differ from highest and best use as though vacant?
A small group of buyers in a market looks for specialized features that are uncommon in the broader housing supply. What term describes this group?
A neighborhood analysis should include all of the following EXCEPT:
A site legally permits at most 40 units and can physically support 50. Supported comparable analyses find 30 and 40 units financially feasible, with 40 units producing the highest net land value after costs, timing and required return. Which use is maximally productive among these alternatives?
Market evidence isolates a subject value loss from off-site landfill odors. Which listed cause is an external-obsolescence influence?
Which proposed use cannot pass the legal-permissibility screen without evidence that the necessary permission is reasonably probable?
People Also Study
Property Description
11.8% of exam
Land or Site Valuation
4.5% of exam
Sales Comparison Approach
16.4% of exam
Cost Approach
13.6% of exam
Income Approach
8.2% of exam