Stop the Insanity!

Abstract

The zoning game has long since lost any sense of sportsmanship; it bears a greater resemblance to trench warfare than a game. See R. Babcock, The Zoning Game (1966). Developers and public planners are both part of the industrial system that builds communities. Planners and local government develop a plan, and developers are the producers of housing, commercial, and industrial buildings. In any system, there will of necessity be some friction. Unfortunately, the current relationship is blatantly adversarial in most communities. Even in communities that are unabashedly pro-growth there is an underlying attempt to extort everything possible from developers, with communities continually upping the demands. In communities with strong no-growth sentiments, the strategy is to delay and attempt to extort totally unrelated concessions in hopes that the developer will go away.