AS a longtime business owner with experience in both private enterprise and public development here in Saipan, I’ve had a front-row seat to the challenges and opportunities our island faces as it grows. One issue now on the table — zoning — deserves not just heated debate, but honest reflection rooted in our community’s needs.
Let me be clear: abolishing zoning is not the solution. Reforming it is. Saipan needs zoning. What it doesn’t need is an outdated, inflexible system that no longer fits the island we are — or the one we aspire to be.
At its core, zoning isn’t about bureaucracy. It’s about balance, protection, and vision. It’s the framework that prevents gas stations from opening next to elementary schools, pig farms from appearing behind restaurants, or 24-hour auto shops setting up next to family homes. Zoning is how we avoid chaos before it starts. It gives structure to our neighborhoods, predictability to our businesses, and peace of mind to families.
Yes, our current zoning laws are far from perfect. They were borrowed from South Dakota — a place with vastly different geography, density, and values than our island. That’s where the real problem lies. Saipan isn’t South Dakota. We are a unique Pacific Island with our own culture, land use patterns, and future goals. Our zoning code should reflect that reality, not someone else’s.
What zoning needs is a reset, not a demolition.
Let’s modernize the law. Let’s simplify the permitting process. Let’s empower the Zoning Board to be more responsive and less bureaucratic. But to throw zoning away altogether would be to invite a free-for-all — one that could jeopardize quality of life, damage property values, and pit neighbor against neighbor.
Take a walk down Middle Road or Chalan Kanoa and ask yourself: Without zoning, how do we prevent incompatible developments from undermining everything we’ve built so far? What would stop an adult nightclub from opening across from a church? Or an industrial waste facility from setting up shop in a residential neighborhood? Zoning is the line between thoughtful growth and reckless expansion.
Opponents argue that zoning hurts small business. But the real culprits are clear: high utility costs, outdated infrastructure, and steep labor burdens. Let’s break that down:
• Zoning Fee? $10.
• Business License? $100.
• An Occupancy Permit? $100.
• Power hookup from CUC? Around $2,000.
• Then there’s 1.5% BGRT, 15% labor costs, and in some cases, 50% of income going to electricity.
Zoning is not what’s driving entrepreneurs away — it’s the high cost of just staying open.
Rather than eliminating a system that offers long-term community benefits, we should be asking smarter questions: How can zoning help promote local agriculture? How can we create mixed-use zones that foster live-work communities? How can zoning protect open spaces and watersheds while encouraging tourism and economic development?
Zoning doesn’t need to be the enemy of progress. It can be the map that guides it — if we have the courage to rewrite it for our people, our land, and our future.
So to our legislators: If you are serious about abolishing zoning, show us the evidence. Show us five solid, data-driven reasons that prove Saipan would be better without it. If you can’t, then let’s not discard a tool just because it needs sharpening.
Let’s fix what’s broken. Let’s localize what’s foreign. Let’s respect the needs of homeowners, farmers, business owners, and families alike.
Zoning isn’t about stopping progress. It’s about shaping it.
Saipan deserves thoughtful development, not deregulated sprawl. Our people deserve protections, not unpredictability.
Let’s not go backward. Let’s move forward — together, and with purpose!
Thank you.
STEVE JANG
Saipan, CNMI
