pending ordinance doctrine
pending-ordinance doctrine. The principle that a municipality may properly deny an application for a property use that, although it would satisfy existing law, would violate a law that is pending when the application is made. • This doctrine was judicially created, mainly to short-circuit landowners’ attempts to circumvent a new ordinance by applying for a nonconforming use on the eve of its approval. [Cases: Zoning and Planning 376. C.J.S. Zoning and Land Planning §§ 71, 199.]
