ABSTRACT
The spread of zoning was greatly facilitated by the publication, by Hoover’s Department of Commerce, of a Standard State Zoning Enabling Act. This was prepared by a committee appointed by Hoover, who was convinced that he could make a significant contribution to the solution of the nation’s problems of unemployment and housing by stimulating housing supply. Part of his policy was to encourage zoning as a means for protecting homeowners from destructive land uses, such as factories, which could invade their neighborhoods (Toll 1969: 201). The prestigious committee’s Standard Act had a standing which was attractive to municipalities searching for solutions to the problems of their suburbanizing areas, and at the same time bore the stamp of authority and rationality which impresses courts. Not surprisingly, it proved to be immensely popular. The first edition was a bestseller, with over 55,000 sales. Within a year, nearly a quarter of all the states had passed legislation Enabling Acts modeled on the Standard Act (Toll 1969:201). The Standard Act listed six purposes of zoning: “to secure safety from fire, panic, and other dangers; to promote health and the general welfare; to provide adequate light and air; to prevent the overcrowding of land; to avoid undue concentration of population; to facilitate the adequate provision of transportation, water, sewerage, schools, parks, and other public requirements.” This list of purposes, which is constantly paraded before the courts, omits the one which is by far the most important: the exclusion of unwanted people or
uses, and thus the preservation of the status quo. These exclusionary objectives are seldom much below the surface, even when they are not explicit. Of course, all zoning is exclusionary; by definition zoning excludes some uses. The one exception (now rarely used) is where a zone is “unrestricted.” Thus, in the 1916 New York ordinance, areas not zoned residential or business were unrestricted. The village of Euclid also had an unrestricted zone, as does any similar “cumulative” zoning system. Euclid provided, first, for an exclusively singlefamily house zone. The second use zone provided additionally for two-family houses; the third further included apartment houses; the fourth offices and shops; and so on until the final zone could accommodate all uses (and was therefore, in effect, an unrestricted zone). In each zone, development could take place that accorded not only with its specific categorization but also with all “higher” uses. Under this system, a single-family house could be built in any zone, but elsewhere only the uses specified for the particular zone and all “higher” zones were permitted.
