Fun With Zoning

In the world of clumsy land use controls, zoning takes the cake. These regulations first became popular in the 1950's to prevent "incompatible" land uses from popping up next to each other. For example, a factory next to a grocery store. The question of how often incompatible land uses would occur without zoning is still unclear. The real motivation behind zoning was to segregate residential areas from all other land uses.

Since its inception, planners, zoning boards, and city councils have gotten creative with what zoning is used for, though not everywhere. Houston, for example, does not use zoning. Portland uses a zoning land use code that is so flexible, it's not clear why they need zoning (what does "mixed use" really mean?). Manassas, VA, has something different - they are using their zoning code to prevent extended families from living in the same house. The ordinance is enforced only by complaint, that is, it is enforced when white people complain about their Guatemalan neighbors and their bum nephew who is taking up an extra parking spot on the street.

Given these grotesque abuses, should we have zoning? It is the primary tool by which land use planning is accomplished, but abuses like this are beyond scandalous. It's enough to make you shake your head and say, "There ought to be a law."