Village Law ?

The Antiplanner recently had an interesting article on a proposal by Robert Nelson, a University of Maryland professor, to change our antiquated zoning laws...

Missouri Law Should Be a Model for the Nation

How do we fix planning and zoning laws that make housing unaffordable and give planners the opportunity to impose their utopian ideas on unwilling neighborhoods? One answer has been offered by Robert Nelson, a University of Maryland professor of public policy. In various articles and books, Nelson has proposed that states allow neighborhoods to opt out of zoning and write their own zoning codes in the form of protective covenants.

Houston already has a system like this, albeit without zoning. Anyone who lives in a neighborhood that doesn’t already have protective covenants can petition their neighbors and, if a majority agree, create a homeowners association and write such covenants. Nelson has essentially proposed to allow this in all cities, and to slowly replace zoning with such covenants.

But what about rural areas? Should people be allowed to opt out of rural zoning? Since the Antiplanner is not too fond of such rural zoning, clearly my answer would be “yes.” And a law recently passed in Missouri effectively allows this to take place.

According to this law, landowners in an unincorporated area may form a “village” provided they have the approval of a majority of the people living in that area. This village would then take over zoning and other regulatory powers from the counties. Developers frustrated by county planners and bureaucratic red tape can effectively do an end run around them.

As described in this recent article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, this law has the counties hopping mad because it tramples on their authority. They claim dire consequences if landowners only have to obey federal and state laws — as if there weren’t enough of those — instead of also having to follow county ordinances.

Obviously, the Antiplanner is not persuaded by these claims. California and other states with planning-induced housing shortages would do well to pass a law modeled after Missouri’s village law.