The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

DAVID J. MANDELIt is my argument that an analysisof our experience with zoninglaws since the passage of NewYork City's comprehensive zoningcode of 1916, the model for mostof the zoning codes of the UnitedStates, compels the conclusionthat zoning laws do not accomplishwhat they were supposed to accomplish,that their premises arefaulty, that zoning is an irre··deemable failure, and therefore,that zoning laws ought to be repealed.The argument is madewith special reference to NewYork City but without limitationto it or to metropolitan areas.A proposal to repeal any 20thcentury social regulatory legislationis usually greeted with asharp intake of breath and thenMr. Mandel is a practicing lawyer in New~ork City. This article is reprinted by permissIOnfrom the December 1971 issue of TheArchitectural Forum. Copyright 1971 by WhitneyPublications, Inc.the muttered pejorative, "laissezfaire."Zoning codes, an expressionof our desire to act rationallyand to use the tools of modern scienceto respond to human needs,have until quite recently been generallyregarded as immune fromfundamental attack. In the lastfew years even the most passionateadmirers of the idea of zoninghave noticed that zoning laws arenot entirely benign. The time isripe to consider afresh the premisesof zoning and its effects.A modern comprehensive zoningcode draws a map dividing thearea into separate use zones, commercial,residential and industrial,usually further broken down intosubzones. (The latest New YorkCity zoning code, 1960, establishes41 types of commercial zones, 12types of industrial zones, and 13types of residential zones.) Besidesestablishing use zones, zon-437