Is Zoning a Contract?

The idea that zoning is a future promise to arrest all change is radical

A week or two ago on Twitter, one user suggested that zoning constituted some sort of “contract” between the municipality and a homeowner—i.e., that people who move into a neighborhood under the existing zoning code have a right to expect it to remain the same, given that its current state factored into their decision to move there. This implies that, i…