“West Hartford Zoning: Report to the Zoning Commission on the Zoning of West Hartford” was written by Robert Whitten, a commissioner of the Zoning Authority. This source reports guidelines regarding the purpose of zoning, zoning regulations, and how the commissioners believed zoning was going to benefit West Hartford.
The report begins by explaining why zoning codes were necessary. In the 1920’s Hartford was becoming congested so people began to move out of the city to West Hartford. Many were also attracted to the “comfort…of the open residential sections” (Whitten 6) that West Hartford offered. Zoning was created to preserve this aspect of West Hartford, as well as to secure the safety from dangers such as fires, and to provide welfare in living and working conditions.
Under the Zoning Authority, commissioners could regulate the size, height, and number of buildings in a specific area. Commissioners could also regulate plans and materials used to build such structures, as well as where they could be located and the amount of space they could take up.
Zoning divided West Hartford into three districts: residence districts, business districts, and industrial districts. In residential districts, only structures such as houses, parks, schools, and a other non-business or industrial strustures were permitted. In the business district, buildings such as retail businesses, offices, and restaurants were all that were permitted. Finally in the industrial district, only manufacturing and storage structures were allowed. Within each district, certain boundaries indicating how large a garage could be, or the minimum area of a backyard could be, existed. These rules were put in place with a goal in mind: to keep West Hartford safe, and from overcrowding. Housing barriers, such as zoning, at this time were extremely restrictive, and because of this only certain people, who could afford the regulated homes, were allowed to live in areas that enforced zoning codes.
Other sources:
Exclusionary Zoning Litigation by David H Moskowitz. I found this book by conducting an advanced search on Trincoll.WorldCat.org. (Moskowitz, 1-5).
Zoning and Diversity in Historical Perspective by Emily Talen. I found this academic journal by doing an advanced search on the America: History and Life database.
Fiscal Zoning in Suburban Communities by Duane Windsor. I found the Trincoll.WorldCat.org database to be the easiest to use, so I used that again to find this source.
Discussion Questions:
1) In what ways was did zoning contribute to unequal housing barriers?
2) Do you believe the real goal of zoning was to secure safety of the inhabitants of West Hartford, or do you think it was designed to ensure only certain types of people could occupy West Hartford (for example, those who could afford to abide by the restrictions?)
Moskowitz, David H. Exclusionary Zoning Litigation. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Pub., 1977. Print.
Talen, Emily. “Zoning and Diversity in Historical Perspective.” Journal of Planning History 11.4 (2012): 330-47. Print.
Whitten, Robert Harvey. West Hartford Zoning. Report to the Zoning Commission on the Zoning of West Hartford,. West Hartford, CT: Zoning Commission, 1924. 6+. Web.
Windsor, Duane. Fiscal Zoning in Suburban Communities. Lexington, MA: Lexington, 1979. Print.