One of the justifications that people use in for arguing for zoning ordainances (and in particular single use zoning ordainances) in towns and cities is that if we didn't have them, then gosh golly, who knows what kind of development will go up next to my lovely home in my lovely neighborhood? If we don't have a zoning ordainance, I just might find myself living next to a cemetary, a nuclear waste plant, a car dealership, or some noisy nightclubs and we just can't have that. We just want to govern what kind of development goes on so that we can protect our property values, our children, and our cherished way of life. Indeed it galls some people to no end that Houston does not have a zoning ordainance and arguably some groups are basically trying to get around the zoning issue by other means. In otherwords, they are trying to get Houston zoned without the zoning.
Readers might be interested in seeing this website.
And so the argument goes. However on February 15, 2007, the Houston Chronicle carried a story about how an L.A. area watchdog group calling itself Communities for a Better Environment are leading people through tours of the L.A. area to show how environmental degradation hits poor people the hardest.
What caught my eye when I read this article was that there was a photograph included in the story. That photo shows a Conoco-Phillips refinery located in the Wilmington area, emitting some vapors during daylight hours. But here's the kicker. In the front of the photograph, one sees 2 homes right up against the boundaries of the plant! 5 cars are parked along the street. More evidence of cars and houses are at the edge of the picture. Why is this?
Is Wilmington not governed by a zoning ordainance? If one punches in the terms "Los Angeles", "zoning", and "land use" into Google, you get 973,000 returns.
My question is this: If one of the prime reasons for zoning is that zoning is supposed to segregate land uses and presumably mitigate harm to citizens in the process, then why were those houses allowed to develop right up against the boundaries of the Conoco Phillips refinery? In all seriousness, if one can't satisfactorily answer that question, then one has to question why it is that we have zoning ordainances to begin with.
Posted by The Mighty Wizard at February 18, 2007 04:27 PM