Zoning is a common legal practice, exercised in America and other developed countries, implemented to control and appropriate land use on the grounds of certain regulations. Some guidelines specify government approved functions and utilizations of properties while others detail physical logistics pertaining to the building and maintenance of structures occupying particular land plots, such as dimensions and similar quantitative measures (Wikipedia). While zoning laws may appear relatively straightforward and even neutral on their face, a history of racial manipulation and long lasting segregation in America serves as a cautionary precursor to the uninformed or contextually removed citizen.
The facilitation and organization of suburban communities and urban societies within greater America was historically influenced and passionately fueled by a discriminatory wave of systematically categorizing neighborhoods on the basis of race, ethnicity, and class. Taking advantage of the racial panic over minority infiltration and competition that manifested as a nationwide white epidemic, realtors and other government actors installed both formal and informal housing policies and tactics including restrictive covenants, redlining, and blockbusting, to combat the integration of racial and ethnic minorities into predominantly white communities (Massey 36). Exclusionary zoning emerged as an additional method of legal combat and in its earliest stages, took the form of strict regulations on low-density and age-restricted zoning, multi-family development projects, and smallest designated plot size (Reece 20) When combined, these strategies openly, methodically, and successfully restricted racial minorities access to fair housing up until exclusionary zoning practices were challenged by a landmark Supreme Court case, Euclid v. Ambler Realty, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, a product of the Civil Rights Movement (Wikipedia).
“Exclusionary Zoning.” Wikipedia. 16 Sept. 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusionary_zoning
Massey, Douglas. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Player, Lydia. Dealing with Government Red Tape. Digital image. North Dallas Homes. 17 Sept. 2012. http://lydiaplayer.blogspot.com/2009/01/dealing-with-government-red-tape.html
Reece, Jason. “People, Place and Opportunity: Mapping Communities of Opportunity in Connecticut.” Connecticut Fair Housing Center: 1-32.