The Birth of Zoning Codes, a History - Bloomberg

The story of American zoning is really the story of how Americans learned to legislate their NIMBY impulses. Before zoning, cities mostly regulated what could be built through nuisance laws. If someone didn't like how their neighbor was using their property, they could haul them to trial and let a judge decide what to do about it. But in 20th century New York, the process had already become cumbersome. In Manhattan, new building techniques were pushing building heights higher, costing neighborhoods sunlight and air. And factories and warehouses were encroaching on fashionable shopping districts, much to the chagrin of said fashionable shoppers. There were early efforts to temper New York's building streak. A landmark 1885 law restricted tenement buildings to one-and-a-half times the street width (the Supreme Court ruled that height restrictions were legal in 1909, when builders challenged Boston's decision to restrict buildings around Copley Square to 90 feet). The building that broke

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• Matthew Kurniawan