Legal Definitions - contiguity

Contiguity refers to the state or condition of two or more things being directly next to each other, touching, or sharing a common boundary without any intervening space.

Here are some examples illustrating contiguity:

• Imagine a property owner who owns a house on one parcel of land and an undeveloped parcel immediately adjacent to it. These two parcels are considered contiguous because they share a common property line, even if they are legally distinct lots. This direct adjacency might allow the owner to combine them for a larger development or to meet certain zoning requirements.

• In environmental law, if a protected wetland area is contiguous with a proposed construction site, specific regulations regarding buffer zones or impact assessments will likely be triggered. The fact that the development directly borders the wetland means there's no separation, making the environmental protections immediately relevant to the construction plans.

• Consider two neighboring municipalities that decide to merge their public transportation systems. If the service areas of these two municipalities are contiguous, meaning they directly border each other without any gaps, it simplifies the logistical and legal process of creating a unified transit network, as there are no disconnected zones to manage.