{"id":10080,"date":"2013-10-15T22:06:04","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T02:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/?p=10080"},"modified":"2013-10-15T22:06:04","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T02:06:04","slug":"zoning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/2013\/10\/15\/zoning\/","title":{"rendered":"Zoning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zoning: Emancipative or Restrictive?<\/b><\/p>\n

In the early 1900s, leaders of West Hartford sought to implement zoning restrictions.\u00a0 West Hartford was a farming town with nearly as many cows as people and was hopeful of becoming a larger residential suburb for workers from the city of Hartford to escape to.\u00a0 (Butterworth 23).\u00a0 Intended or not, there were repercussions that occurred due to the Zoning Act of 1924.\u00a0 Today, we still see similar statistics, which leads us to believe there could be a correlation between zoning and racial segregation.<\/p>\n

The 1924 zoning committee planned to be the first in the area to create these regulations.\u00a0 Robert Whitten came to Hartford by invitation from the committee and was wanted on board for his intelligence and persistence.\u00a0 The committee wanted zoning to create a desirable community for people leaving the city of Hartford in hope of finding peace and space.\u00a0 The Zoning Acts were developed in an attempt to ensure the calmness and quality size of the land.\u00a0 \u201cOn the economic side, zoning means increased industrial efficiency and the prevention of enormous waste.\u00a0 On the human side, zoning means better homes and an increase of health, comfort and happiness for all the people.\u201d (Whitten Cover).\u00a0 Zoning was also used to keep the area neat, eliminate trash, and provide people with reassurance that their property would be safe and protected from a decrease in value.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What<\/strong>\u00a0Was the Plan?<\/b><\/p>\n

The Hartford Zoning Committee covered many aspects in regards to building restrictions in their proposal.\u00a0 West Hartford was to be divided into three areas: residential, business, and industrial.\u00a0 Each section had its own restrictions as to what was allowed.\u00a0 There were a lot of restrictions within the residential district.\u00a0 Sidewalks were to be set 20 to 40 feet back from the road in order to ensure less traffic and more parking availability.\u00a0 Every building area was allowed to have a garage. However, the larger the lot, the greater amount of cars was permitted.\u00a0 (Whitten12).\u00a0 There were also regulations included to avoid obstruction of view, regulate side and front yards, and unify the height of all structures.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/a>
Robert Whitten in West Hartford Zoning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The document specified that for a large amount of money you could live in a certain area and have the entire lot to yourself.\u00a0 For a lesser amount of money, you could still be in the town, but it was a smaller section and the houses were not only smaller but they were right on top of each other.\u00a0 Ultimately, this was an attempt to segregate the town into rich and poor.\u00a0 \u201cIt is recognized, however, that it would be unwise to implement any rule of this kind.\u00a0 It is quite likely that it limited portions of these areas provision for two family houses, group houses and even apartment houses will be economically and socially desirable.\u201d (Whitten 14).\u00a0 Entirely, West Hartford was considered economically undesirable to all families who were not financially capable of purchasing under the new regulations. It deterred people from building multi-family houses and promoted the purchase of single-family pricier homes.<\/p>\n

The Hidden Plan<\/b><\/p>\n

Zoning may not have been the sole cause of the current wage gaps of residents in West Hartford vs. Hartford.\u00a0 However, it is apparent that zoning laws had an influential role in segregating people by income.\u00a0 Consequently, people who were left unable to afford the new property were left to settle in Hartford.\u00a0 Race and income are very commonly linked which meant that the poor minorities were primarily located in Hartford while the white middle class settled in West Hartford. \u00a0The Zoning Act of 1924 made West Hartford a very exclusive, privileged place to live.<\/p>\n

Zoning Today<\/b><\/p>\n

The Zoning Act was put in place to accommodate all classes of people\/workers who were migrating from the city of Hartford.\u00a0 Today, if we look at a map showing racial change in Hartford, it becomes evident that the surrounding suburbs are 90-100 percent occupied by white residents.\u00a0 (Magic Lib 1).\u00a0 In an attempt for equality, the zoning laws inadvertently caused the minorities to settle in the poor city of Hartford.\u00a0 Hartford is filled with apartment buildings and complexes that accommodate multiple families.\u00a0 The suburbs lend themselves to single family homes, which allow for a higher class of residents to purchase property.\u00a0 In addition to a differentiation in location of races in the Hartford area, today there are also significant differences in household income when comparing Hartford and West Hartford.\u00a0 (Social Explorer).\u00a0 West Hartford\u2019s average household income is $80,061 while Hartford\u2019s is $29,107.<\/p>\n

\""Zoning<\/a>
“Zoning Maps of West Hartford, Connecticut, 1924 to Present.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zoning originated as a proposition for a safer, healthier, community.\u00a0 The commissioners, along with Robert Whitten, proposed rules and regulations that would ensure stability.\u00a0 Whether or not zoning directly caused racial and economic segregation is a question largely debated?\u00a0 What we do know is that the area of Hartford and the surrounding suburbs are not areas of equal emancipation when it comes to opportunities in life. Clearly the effects of zoning demonstrate segregation.\u00a0 Perhaps the question should be: \u201cWas there a hidden agenda when zoning was implemented?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Butterworth, Miriam, Ellsworth S. Grant, and Richard Woodworth. Celebrate! West Hartford: An Illustrated History<\/i>. West Hartford, CT: Celebrate West Hartford, 2001. Print.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u201cRacial Change in the Hartford Region, 1900-2010\u201d University of Connecticut Libraries Map and Geographic Information Center – MAGIC <\/i>. Web. 20 Jun. <http:\/\/magic.lib.uconn.edu\/otl\/timeslider_racethematic.html>.<\/p>\n

Social Explorer Tables:\u00a0 ACS 2007 to 2011 (5-Year Estimates) (SE), ACS 2007 — 2011 (5-Year Estimates), Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau<\/p>\n

Whitten, Robert Harvey, West Hartford Zoning: Report to the Zoning Commission on the Zoning of West Hartford<\/i> (West Hartford, Conn: Zoning\u00a0Commission, 1924),<\/p>\n

“Zoning Maps of West Hartford, Connecticut, 1924 to Present.” University of Connecticut Libraries Map and Geographic Information Center – MAGIC <\/i>. Web. 20 Jun. 2012. <http:\/\/magic.lib.uconn.edu\/otl\/dualcontrol_zoning_westhartford.html>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zoning: Emancipative or Restrictive? In the early 1900s, leaders of West Hartford sought to implement zoning restrictions.\u00a0 West Hartford was a farming town with nearly as many cows as people and was hopeful of becoming a larger residential suburb for workers from the city of Hartford to escape to.\u00a0 (Butterworth 23).\u00a0 Intended or not, there … Continue reading Zoning<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":608,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10080"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10936,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10080\/revisions\/10936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}