As with just about everything else that sociopaths come up with, zoning laws are designed for a purpose besides what the dumb masses are told. Zoning laws are basically enforced locally in the United States and they are used to ensure that houses go there and warehouses go here and stores go here and, well, you get the idea.
They were solidified as valid and constitutional by the Supreme Court (naturally) in 1926 by the case Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Reality Co. after they had already been ruled as unconstitutional by the Inferior Courts. So there is some contention on the constitutionality of the idea of zoning laws to begin with.
I find zoning laws to be unconstitutional and that they are used to expand the powers of local governments indefinitely and often times for the sake of some supposed greater good.
Zoning laws are used as a means of central planning for local governments. This means that they get to approve and say what goes where and what you get to do with your property. As a basic rule, I believe that property rights should allow you as an individual to do what you want with your property so long as it does not infringe upon the rights of others. For example, I can drive my car the way I want, but if I pose a danger to others because I’m drunk, then I am violating the property rights (and lives) of my fellow motorists. If, however, I can drive safely, I should be allowed to do whatever I want with my car.
Granted, it is definitely a little more complicated than that, however, the general idea is that the individual should have say so over the property he or she owns. And there is nothing bigger to own than land.
What zoning laws effectively do is infringe upon the property rights of the individual by dictating what can and can’t be done on a particular piece of land. As such, there are many rules and regulations involving where you can sell your goods or services, where you live, and where you buy things. These are fundamental freedoms that are denied to individuals unless they are able to bribe local politicians in order to do what they want. And of course it doesn’t always work like that.
Zoning laws are what cause many of the current inconveniences we have today, such as traffic jams and rush hour traffic. Because localities pick and choose areas for residential and commercial use, everyone who works tends to travel to their destination. This means that everyone goes in the same direction everyday at the same time and thus, we have traffic. Now, I’m not going to say that traffic jams would completely disappear if zoning laws were made to be unconstitutional, but I think they would alleviate them somewhat.
Another thing that zoning laws are used for is for localities to maximized their tax revenue when they plan out new areas for development. If a certain type of housing development or commercial district will yield more tax revenue, then they will approve that one over one that doesn’t. There are so many churches and other charitable buildings that have never come to pass all because local officials wanted their due.
Ultimately, local officials tend to re-zone areas at their whim. This leaves the citizenry subject to the potential tyranny of an unscrupulous individual on some kind of power trip. This means if a local official doesn’t like a particular area, he can simply re-zone it and sell it off to developers.
Now, I know that zoning laws have prevented some things that people would find distasteful. After all, most people would not want to see a red light district in the places they live and shop. Also, many rundown areas have been rebuilt after having been re-zoned.
But those are usually the exceptions and not the normal flow of things. Zoning laws are an affront to liberty and property rights, as well as economic freedom, and they always carry the potential to be abused.
And when you have the potential for abuse, it is always taken advantage of. This is because politicians usually consist of people who cannot make it in the real world and so they find some kind of righteous justification for their tyrannical meddling.
And do you really want someone like that wielding that much power over you?