Exclusionary Zoning Introduction History an

The urban neighborhoods of AmericaÆs major cities are deteriorating, trapping city residents in a cycle of poverty as jobs disappear and housing stock decays. In contrast, affluent suburbs are sprawling outward from the central cities, leading to the creation and maintenance of exclusionary enclaves in which predominately white, middle- to upper-middle class (and beyond) professionals are concentrated (State-sponsored growth..., 1127). In order to maintain homogeneity in such residential communities, zoning ordinances have been used which forbid multiple-family housing and require single-family housing to meet high minimum square footage requirements. By enacting this type of zoning ordinance, municipalities can effectively raise construction costs so that it is impossible to construct the kind of housing that may be affordable to lower-income families - let alone the most poor and needy (State-sponsored growth..., 1128).

Courts in the United States have reviewed zoning ordinances since cities first instituted zoning in the early 1900s, and exclusionary ordinances were invalidated as arbitrary and unreasonable as early as 1950 (State-sponsored growth..., 1127). Because of political opposition, a court may be the only institution that will act to punt an end to exclusionary zoning, but litigation is both an expensive and time-consuming solution to a problem that is all-too-common. The cost of litigation effectively d

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stricting their freedoms. Holtman (35) argues, and this writer agrees, that a viable and valid normative ethical theory mandates rejection of many exclusionary zoning ordinances and practices in order to serve the interests of the entire population and not merely the interests of a small segment within the population. The intent of the report is to examine exclusionary zoning and to identify the ill effects caused by such practices and make recommendations for future studies as well as intervention strategies that could be used by planners. Methodology of the Paper This report was designed as a qualitative, narrative examination of literature related to the topic of exclusionary zoning. The study is historical in its attempt to trace, to the degree possible in a relatively brief presentation, the ways in which exclusionary zoning has changed over time. It relies upon primary and secondary sources obtained from an extensive library-based research effort. The effort employed several different databases, including those in the fields of current events, law, and the social sciences. Discussion The foregoing brief review of literature offers insight into how exclusionary zoning has developed over time. McDougall (p 623-
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Approximate Word count = 4829
Approximate Pages = 19 (250 words per page)

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