ABSTRACT
There is no doubt of the presumptuousness of that chapter heading, and yet it is a most appropriate way to start. It might have been even better to have said, ‘You should want to know about zoning.” Although there are many reading this—and millions who never will read it— who may question that statement, I suggest that there is no single governmental function, other than taxation, that has a more direct bearing on our day-to-day lives than the thing called zoning. Don’t think you can stop reading here if you happen to live in a place without zoning, since the lack of such a process leaves you wide open to even more drastic and adverse effects. After some 30 years of being involved with communities and their development, I believe that any organized community in the United States that does not have zoning is shortchanging itself and that there is no town or city that has zoning that could not be doing a better job with it.
