In Alabama’s fastest-growing county, citizens are making use of one of the few regulatory tools at their disposal to try and control development: zoning.

As growth continues in Baldwin County, residents who live outside of one of the county’s municipalities have increasingly been looking to zoning as a way to control the growth in their areas. Since January, citizens in three planning districts have implemented zoning: 8, 37 and 35. Three more districts are in the preliminary stages of implementing zoning: 39, 38 and 14.

Another district, 36, voted against zoning earlier this year. Most recently, the Baldwin County Commission ratified zoning for Planning District 35, southwest of Foley on Tuesday at its regular meeting.

“I talk to you guys [county Planning and Zoning staff] probably more than the Highway Department these days,” Baldwin County Commissioner Billie Jo Underwood, who represents District 3, said Tuesday during the meeting.

The county’s municipalities have also struggled to control the growth within their bounds. Last December, Fairhope instituted a moratorium on all new development in its corporate limits for a year, to try and get control of the city’s rapid growth.