According to the West Hartford Zoning, by Robert Whitten, zoning is when a town is divided into different sections, and each section serves a different purpose. In West Hartford, for example, the town is broken into residence districts, business districts, and industrial districts. In the residence districts, Whitten explicitly writes “all business and industrial uses of property are prohibited” (Whitten 1924, 10). The business district will be for stores, offices, theaters, and restaurants. And the last district, the industrial district, will be for manufacturing. Zoning is “essential to the securing of a measure of orderliness in the building of the city” and “is the direction of building development along orderly and well-considered lines of city growth” (Whitten 1924). Economically, “zoning means increased industrial efficiency and the prevention of enormous waste” (Whitten 1924). For the people, “zoning means better homes and an increase of health, comfort and happiness for all of the people” (Whitten 1924). In conclusion, zoning is a way the town can prevent chaos and limit and control exactly what happens in the town.
In the West Hartford Zoning of 1924, each district has sub-districts, which has certain regulations. For example, in the residence district, there are five sub-districts. All of the sub-districts are allotted a certain square foot for each home; if it is a single family home or two family home in sub-district A or B, they are given more square footage than the sub-district C, D, or E is given. Also, certain types of homes are not encouraged to be in built in certain sub-districts, such as a three family home in district A, B. or C because of the lot areas; sub-districts D and E have square footage regulates that are intended for three family homes (Whitten 1924). By doing this, the town is regulating who can live in what area, because three family homes will be cheaper to live in than a one family home. The districts are divided into who will be able to afford what, therefore, zoning and segregating incomes of families.
The residence district of West Hartford in 1924 is an example of exclusionary zoning. Exclusionary zoning is “steering in the residential markets” and creating “restrictions or bans on multi-family development, minimum lot sizes, age-restricted zoning, and low density zoning” (Reece 2009, 14, 20). In each sub-district of the residence district, there is allotted lot sizes such as the height of the buildings, the square footage, etc. There are requirements for each of these sub-districts, and by doing this, they are determining who will be able to live in what area.
Today, exclusionary zoning affects Connecticut. In West Hartford, for example, the exclusionary zoning still exists today. In this picture below, the different colors show the different districts present right now.
MAGIC 2012
The grey zones in West Hartford are the areas where most of the business/industry are located throughout the town. The purple zones, if I am understanding the codes correctly, show the residential multi-family homes. From my knowledge of West Hartford, the areas around business and industry are mainly multi-family homes, especially the streets off of Park Road, therefore my conclusion of the purple zoning being residential multi-family homes shall be accurate. By all of the multi-family homes being close to industry and businesses, this shows exclusionary zoning; multi-family homes are not spread out throughout the town, rather near industry and business, therefore the town is segregating by income levels. If the town was not participating in exclusionary zoning, multi-family dwellings would be across the town; however, this is not the case and the multi-family homes are in little chunks in surrounding shopping and retail centers, close to the Hartford line. This picture is an accurate showing of exclusionary zoning and how it reflects in a town.
SOURCES:
University of Connecticut Libraries Map and Geographic Information Center – MAGIC. (2012). Zoning Maps of West Hartford, Connecticut, 1924 to Present.. Retrieved from http://magic.lib.uconn.edu/otl/dualcontrol_zoning_westhartford.html.
Jason Reece, et al., People, Place, and Opportunity: Mapping Communities of Opportunity in Connecticut: A Report Commissioned By the Connecticut Fair Housing Center (Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, The Ohio State University, 2009), http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/connecticut-opportunity-mapping-initiative-results-and-resource-materials/.
Robert Harvey Whitten. West Hartford Zoning: Report to the Zoning Commission on the Zoning of West Hartford. West Hartford, Conn: Zoning Commission, 1924 (courtesy of the Connecticut State Library)