Conservatives Shouldn’t Oppose California’s Potential Zoning Reforms
These are Alice in Wonderland times, where limited-government conservatives often defend big-government policies, big-government progressives regularly support deregulation and everyone else is left scratching their heads. “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense,” said Alice in the 1951 Disney version of the story.
Everything in this world does seem nonsensical, especially as we consider the issue of land-use regulation and California’s efforts (led by progressives) to jump-start housing construction by—yes, you heard this right—reducing the role of government in dictating what we can do with our property. Meanwhile, many conservatives have dug in their heels as they defend ham-fisted progressive-era rules that are anathema to our freedoms. It’s curiouser and curiouser.
These conservatives act as if the founders would approve of a system where bureaucrats determine the proper use of every tract in their communities and dictate what owners can do with their land down to the tiniest detail. And where owners must, with tail between their legs, lobby their elected officials for discretionary approval of any building project. They act as if one’s right to use government to control what other people do nearby is in the Constitution up there with the Second Amendment.
Yes, something set me off. I was perusing The Orange County Register‘s Independence Day section, when I spotted my colleague Susan Shelley’s depiction of California Senate Bill 79 as an assault on our “right to enjoy single-family homes.” As she explains, the legislation “would allow the construction of high-rise apartment buildings in areas zoned for single-family homes if the parcel is within one-half mile of transit.…The law would make this ‘by right’ development, meaning there’s no approval process that would allow neighbors to raise issues about the impact of the project.”
There’s so much to unpack. For starters, our founding did not guarantee our right to “enjoy” anything. Enjoyment is subjective. I do indeed enjoy my single-family home in a quiet suburban neighborhood, but I know people who do not enjoy living far from downtown amenities. The founders upheld the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have the right to own property. If, say, your local code refers to “peaceful enjoyment,” it doesn’t refer to one’s ability to micromanage what othe
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