Is non-zoning of land impossible? Eight fundamental propositions of zoning

ABSTRACT

This essay explains that by virtue of having its boundary delineated, each parcel of land thus defined (or, more technically, zoned) acquires a unique boundary rendering it a discretely differentiated good. Zoning is about enclosing otherwise common resources with clear boundaries, both land and sea, to constrain rent dissipation, and enable betterment and conservation. By referring to parallels in maritime zoning according to international law and treaties, the discussion frees bundling zoning with U.S. zoning law vocabulary and explores the implications of the generic meaning of zoning as boundary delineation. Zoning is the primeval form of town and country planning. It can be imposed by state command or adopted by mutual agreement between government and individuals, conferring or attenuating rights and/or stipulating obligations. The actual effect of zoning is a case-by-case empirical matter. Zoning has a significant informational dimension and is a form of production, leaving a very rigid physical geographical outcome. Dezoning in the sense of depriving land property of its boundaries is generically impossible: once zoned (and thus created), a plot or parcel cannot be uncreated, just changed.

KEYWORDS:

• Zoning
• districting
• land property
• plan-market dichotomy
• property rights

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the useful comments by two anonymous reviewers and the assistance of Adam Chun Liang Lin for the production of Figures 1 and 2.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Note: ‘dedicated’ means exclusively allocated to or intended for a particular purpose.

2 Tarlock (2014, p. 101) realised that ‘cities were preplanned by surveyors, the real American planners’ but paradoxically considered that US land as basically ‘Zoned but not planned.’

3 ‘Inland waters’ is the zone inside the baseline. ‘Territorial sea’ is the zone extending 12 nm from the baseline. ‘Contiguous zone’ is the area extending from 12 to 24 nm from the baseline. The ‘exclusive economic zone’ is the area extending 200 nm from the baseline except when the space between two countries is less than 400 nm or, though there is some uncertainty, to the edge of the continental shelf if that is more distant. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 at https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/UNCLOS-TOC.htm.

4 When Elkind (2015) discussed oil drilling in zoned cities, zoning and property rights are treated as conflicting. Slaev (2016) found Professor William A. Fischel’s (1985) neo-institutional economic concept of zoning as a ‘collective property right’ as basically regulatory not right conferring.

5 See International Seabed Authority at https://www.isa.org.jm/.

6 The most modern technology can drill wells up to 3500 m beneath the sea surface. Despite the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, at that time the deepest deepsea rig, at 1259 m, efforts to drill in deeper waters have not ceased: https://www.offshore-energy.biz/totalenergies-spuds-namibian-ultra-deepwater-well/. Positional precision using dynamic positioning technology can be as tight as 100 mm horizontally and 200 mm vertically: https://www.geoflex.xyz/industry/high-accuracy-positioning-for-marine-applications/ in ideal conditions, though in more conditions ±5 m (Alremeihi et al., 2021).

7 See http://www.unoceans.org/.

8 See, however, the Google supported, extremely effective ‘policing’ of illegal fishing achieved by Global Fishing Watch: https://globalfishingwatch.org/.

9 This, however, may change if envisaged floating settlements are instantiated. Lim (2021); Bolonkin (2008) and, more generally, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_colonization.

10 Consider, for example, the almost complete international agreement on excluding the possibility of sea-steading.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lawrence W. C. Lai

Prof. Lawrence W. C. Lai, Academic qualifications: B.Soc.Sc. (HKU), M.T.C.P. (Sydney), M.Soc.Sc. (Econ) (HKU), LL.B (London), Ph.D (HKU). Professional qualifications: M.A.P.I., M.H.K.I.P., F.R.I.C.S., F.H.K.I.S., M.C.I.L.T., Registered Professional Planner. Government committee appointments: Board of Review (Inland Revenue Ordinance); Building Appeal Tribunal; Planning Appeal Board; Transport Tribunal; University Grant Committee. Former positions in Hong Kong Government: Executive Officer, Royal Hong Kong Police; Town Planner, Town Planning Office, Lands & Works Branch; Environmental Protection Officer, Environmental Protection Department. Present position: Professor, Ronald Coase Centre for Property Rights Research; Department of Real Estate & Construction, University of Hong Kong. Publications: has published since 1985 a total of 145 refereed academic research papers and 16 books in English on town planning, property rights and related subjects.

Stephen N. G. Davies

Prof. Stephen N. G. Davies, Academic qualifications: B.Sc. (Econ) (Cardiff), M.Sc. (Econ) (LSE), Ph.D. (LSE). Former teaching position: Lecturer in Political Science, HKU. Present position: Hon. Professor, Department of Real Estate & Construction, University of Hong Kong; Hon Fellow, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong. Research Consultant, Lighthouse Heritage Research Project, City University of Hong Kong. Research Fellow: Navigation Practices in Asian Seas (16th-19th Centuries) Project, École française d’Extrême-Orient Paris/Academia Sinica, Taipei. Previously Museum Director, Hong Kong Maritime Museum. Has published 12 books in maritime studies and maritime history and over 70 refereed academic research papers, including papers in Progress in Planning, Planning Theory, Town Planning Review, Planning Practice & Research, Survey and Built Environment.