Zoning Is Coming To Town-- 1957 Readers Digest
,4 ReaderDs igest ' :"' '":si:" THE READER'S DIGEST . PLEASANTVILLE. NEvt/YORK
parlor. More than I With cit2 populations exploding inlo thc suburbs, communities all oaer the coun.l.ra1r e .realizingt hc necdfo r g,uiding their growth b2 democrattcm eans the New
York Times esrimatesn, ow live under local zoning laws. Many people are unaware of the fact that their community is zoned, or of what it means to their comfort and security. Others undoubtedly
are very much aware of the problem, as they ry to decide whether zoning would help or harm their town. The idea of controllins rhe use of land dates far back in Airerica. For example,
one reason we like the Connecticut town where we live is the charm of the village green with its white church-the result of a town plan laid down 2oo years ago. Another zoning device
as ancient as it is necessaryis legal Gncing, to keep stock fr,rm oueirunning Jther people's property. Our lorefathers were interested in roo million Americans, orderly development rather
than ZONINGC oMEST o Towx By Stuart Chase -llo*r*", someone has sald, "ls E t ai*ed at keeping the kitchen stove out of the parlor." Driving through the New England countryside the other
day, -I saw a sad example of a town where zoning obviously was unknown. Practically in the vard of a near ranch-type house-last in a row of new houses-loomed a huge sign: DRr!'E-rTNH
EATERIt . was three times as high as the chimney on rhe house, and brilliantly lit at night. The people living in the house *ere unibl. to see the screen, but they could hardly avoid
being bothered by the sign and the churning traffic. One promorer had built the housing development; anorher had back-ed a theater into it. The stove was in the
THI-. REA DI-.R'S I)IGE5 I conservation; theY had PlentY of land. Today, horvever, with PoPulation exploding in all directions,w e needb oth: plansf or conservingo ur land resourcesa,
nd Plans for their orderly future developmentA. massive misration of homes and industries is in progress lrom cities to suburbs, bringing problems of increased car and truck tralfic,
housing, water supply, schools and recreition areast,h e locationo f factories and shopping centers. Shall we let expansionra ngeu ncheckedr,v ith an oil refinery in the midclle of a
resi dential district, a hot-dog stand on the village green ? Or shall we attempt toGnd the best places lor factoriis, storess, choolsa nd homesl Zoning tries to keep preser.lrat nd
use lrom further deterioration and confusion. Town planrring' its nvin brother ,e xplorest he lal tdscapeosf the future. The two have been called "intelligent cooperation rvith the inevitable."
Let's look at the experiettcoe[ c,ne rural town which mav not be typical of all American comnlunities but which facesm any of the semeP roblems and deals with the same kind of human
nature. For six years I have been secretary of the Zoning tsoardo { APPealsi n our town of 3ooo, some 6o miles lrom New York. We have dairv farmers. apple growers. lactorY workers, riiopk..pett,
professir.'nal people.c ommuterst o iobs in ncar -by cities,e vena band of hardYc ommuters to New York. Our town has lovelY old colonial housesl,o vingly restoredI.t has upland pastures
studded with cedars, arching elms and maples, rushing s t r e a m s , q u i e t l a k e s and w i d e stretcheso f-undevelopedw oodland rvhere wild deer leaP the ancient stone walls.
You can still find room to park around the handful of stores' th€ churchess, choolsa nd the library (u'hich Mark Twain gave us when he lived here 5o years ago). There is one large factory,
which helPs the tax rate; a luture development of light industry rvould help, too. Most of us rvant to keep this a town with a lile of its orvn-not a "bedroom tolvn," to which people
working outside come only to sleeP. Year after year our town reiected the simple standard Procedure for zoning olTered by the State of Conr rec t icut .Z oningw asu nconst i l .ut ional,
people said. It would bankruPt the town. There were even more fantastic objections: "You will lose control of your farm, Your home, vour businessy.o ur livelihood."O b' uiourly, peopie
wanted complete, untrammeled liberty to build what and rvheret hey pleased,a nd never mind the neishbors. Then a small drug Plant with a big smel l begant o oPeratein one oiour residentiaal
reasO. vernight a torvn meeting was called, and zoning rvas adopted hands down! Follc,,rvingt he statel aw, we elected a Zoning Commission of five unrrricl citizens, who held a series
c,f public hearings and drew uP a zonir',s .ode. Tliis document divided the to*,n into three districts or
ZONING CO|I'|ES TO TOWN zones: (1) residentiala nd farming, (2) commercial and shopping, (3) industriala nd manufacturing.A nybody could go right on doing what he had been doing up to
the moment zoning was voted in; the law apolied onlv to netu activities. Old iignboa.ds, for example, couid stay. Our code regulated only new signboards. and it forbade various speci6c
industries, especially odoriferous ones, from coming in. It also frowned on mental institutions and prisons, commercial dance-halls, junkyards, gravel banks and dumps -unless the last
two were ooerated by the town. After a series of lively hearings, the codew as acceptedin town meeting, and the Zoning Commission settled down to see that the orovisionsw erec ar r iedo
ut .A s an emer -gency measure-becausep romoters' bulldozersw ere poisedt o movei nthe Commission decided to limit house iots to one acre in oart of the resident iaal nd farming zone,
two acres in the rest. There was also a setback provision for new construction: 5o leet lrom the road. z5 feet from property lines. These restrictions stopped the outof -town subdividers
who we re threetening to cut up lerge sections of the town into small-lot developments. We were worried about that. For the owner of a new ranch-style houseo n a quarter-acrew ould pay
taxes rif about $zoo a year at current rates.B ut two school-agceh ildreni n that house rvould cost the town $6oo a year for education and transportation. A rvhole rorv of such houses
would upset the town budget badly. Still, some citizens complained that the Commission rvas highhandeda bouti ts acreagere strictions. Soon, they said, we would make it lour acres.s
ix acrest.e n acres!" Little people won't be able to live here any longer. There'll be nobody left but the r ich. " The Commissionr eplied that when the town adopted a planning larv,
acreage restrictions could be revierved and, if necessary, amended. Meanwhile, applications lor exceptions to the code began to multiply. The Telephone Company wanred to build a dial
exchangein the residential zone; the Canine College wanted to enlarge its kennels; a wr )manr vantedto opena n ant i ( lue shoo in her house: a farmer complained that his new turkey
house could onlv be placed in a "non-conforming'-'rpot; " retired doctor rvanted to sell gravel from his place. Most of these projects were quite reasonabiea, nd lortunately the state
law providesa meanso f copingr vith them. This is a Zonine Board of Appeals.c ompr.,scodf five citizens. also unpaid, who hear complaints and grant exceptionsc, alled "variances,"if
a genuineh ardshipc an be demonstratedI.f an applic:urti s not satisfied with the Board's decision, he can appeal to the regular state courts. As secretaryo f our Board I have helpedt
o investigatem ore than roo applicationsfo r variance.I have inspected buildings and boundaries,
T'HE READER'S DIGEST sometrmes wlth tape measure in hand. In six years our Board has granted 72 percenr of all applications, and we have had no formal court case as yet. I have begun
to understand the pressures involved. Zoning is about one-third law and two-thirds human relations. If there is no mutual trust between the zoning olficials and the townspeople, zoning
might as well go out the window. Most hearings are quiet, but some are not, as when the head of one of the town's political parties came to us with an application for a variance -after
he had built an addition to his house too near the highway. If we denied his application, we could be charged with dealing out political punishment. If we granted it, we u'ould be setting
a precedent for other violators. The public hearing in the school gymnasium wai packed, and emotion ran high. We turned the applicanr down. But our lawyer and-his arranged a compromise.
He was able to move the end of the structure without undue expense. Citizens take more care Jlow: they measure before they build. Another stormy hearing dealt with an application to
turn an old inn into a convalescenht ospital.T he hall was well filled, for neaily everybody hoped ro hear an a.ieptabie proposal to have the gracious old building occupied again. The
prospectivep urchaser'lsa wyera ddrissed the assembled neighbors as he would a iury-a iurv with a low I.e. He assured us that his client's pro, posal was perGctly legal; that there would
be hre escaPese, mergency exits and so on. What he proposed to do inside the legal frime was not speci6ed By the time the chair called for questions from the floor, the mood of the audience
had given way to deeps uspicion". Whaidocrors have you consultedl" -"What experience have you had?"-"Is it going to be a home for alcoholic?s "-"For mental casesl" One of our leading
citizens rose to his Get with dignity. "We came here prepared to lisien io any reasonablep roposition,"h e said, "and all we have heard is doubletalk about legality. We resent the patronizing
atitude of counsel.', There was a burst of applause, during which applicant and^counsei made a quick exit. Our Board did not need to make any decision on this case.D emocracyd ecidedf
or us. After. six years of practical experience lt rs now apparent that none of the fears and alaims of the original opposition to zoning have come to pass.A nd we have s=coresdo me
real gains. Zoning has put an end ro small-lot developments. It has stoppeda factoryf rom beingb uilt in the wrong place.I t has steereds ev_ eral shop-sa nd enterpr i sesa way from
residential zones into business zones. New houses are set back from the road and from property lines, thus maintaining the iesidential charactero f the tJwn, while reducing back-yardm
isunderstandinss.I t has kept signboards few and sriall;
ZONING COMES TO TOWN the visitor does not have to look at our town through a barricade of ads for motels, beei and cigarettes. He can really see how nice It is. Finally, its performance
has converted mosr of the opposition-excepting, perhaps, that hard core, found in every community, that is temperamentally "agin' [he government." And I think rhe rown is more aware
now of its problems, and prouder of itself than it used to be. , Along with the gains, many problems are still to be solved. Zonins gives power to board members, anJ power is a heady
drug. For a rime there was a struggle between "hard" zoners, who wanted to get tough, and "soft" zoners, who dislikld pushing citizens around. The latter policy largely prevailed, but
the former is always tempting. Zoning in our town can do nothing about any state highway, which goes slam-bang where it listeth, ruining. an area here, possibly improving it there. Better
cooperation between town and state is badly neededwhich means some kind-of regional planning. . Finally, it is clear that zoning has been primarily a protective operation. It has kept
the town hom growing worse, but has done little to make it better. So now we have voted to install a local Planning Commission. We know that our r;;n will be different ten yearsh encea,
nd we want it to be ai) even better place to live. Where should the new subdivisions, factories and schools be located I What about more playgrounds, a swimming pool, a new rown hall
i Where should rhe shopping center go.) How about , hili.6pt., landTng fieldl With town planning we hopi to conrrol the forces of growth 6y democratic means, and pieserve the reasonablea
nd comloriable use o[ our land. Our forefathers planned a settlement around the village green. Our town, togerher with all America, is entering a ne\v age of pioneering, based largely
on ih. inie.nal-coribustion engine. Zoning and town planning are signs thai America is growing up. We no longer have unlimited land to play with. It is time to slakeo ut theu i t l ig.
greena newrvith plenty of ro.,.-m?r off-street parking. Reprints of this article are available. Prices, postpaid to one adclress: ro-ao cent{i 5o-$r.25: l o o -$ . 2 . 2 5 : 5 o o --$ro
; r ooo -$ r 7. Adclress Repri-nt Elitor, The Reader's Digest, Pleasantville, N. y. Rebrinted lron tbe Februty 1957 i:tte ol The Read,er,t Digetr copvrigbt 1957 bv Tbe Reada'r Diget
Artociation, lnc. pleavntaille, N. y. printed in Il. s. A,