The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

438 THE FREEMAN Julying codes set formulas regulatingthe bulk and height of structureswithin each zone and subzone.The social value of legislatingseparate use areas is open to seriousquestion. To be sure, separationof land uses is a natural processthat occurs in the absence ofzoning. It is natural for businessesto cluster, for heavy industry tooccupy certain terrain, for singlecharacterresidential areas to developat certain places at certaintimes. To the extent that zoningsimply recognizes the natural process,it changes nothing and causesno loss. Wherever zoning has operationaleffect it mandates a usethat is not natural (i.e., one thatwould not occur in the absenceof zoning) and perforce it mandatesan unnatural allocation ofresources that tends to impoverishthe total community. In contemporaryterms, it is bad ecology.It is bad ecology partly becauseit regards the interest of someproximate land users as the equivalentof "the general interest."The entire organism, the totalcommunity, is thrown out of balancefor what is presumed to bethe interest of a local part. Assume,for instance, that an areais zoned for one-family homes,minimum lot size one-half acre,and that a builder proposes tobuild a highrise apartment buildingon a part of that area. Theproximate land users, or even onlya majority of them, want zoningrestriction as protection for theirinterest in maintaining "the characterof their community." Butprotection of their interest meansa loss to the owner of the land,an injury to his interest; it deprivesworkmen of jobs; it deprivesthe potential apartmentdwellers of the opportunity torent or buy quarters that theymight want and be willing to payfor. It prevents concentrated usewhere concentrated use is indicatedby the willingness of someoneto risk his money and consequentlycondemns a greater quantityof land to development inorder to house the same population.Is It Fair?One may also question the fundamentalfairness of allowing theresidents of subdivisions to usethe political process to insure thattheir neighbors will not live inapartment houses or be less affluentthan they, or will not constructhomes appreciably smallerthan theirs, or build a factory. Ineffect, zoning grants to a local majoritythe right to exclude whichis the essence of ownership.The rationale for allowing B toexercise rights of ownership overA's land ought to be found in the