Saturday, September 24, 2005
Private Neighborhoods
University of Maryland Professor Robert Nelson's new book, Private Neighborhoods and the Transformation of Local Government is now out. This book is a fitting successor to Bernard Siegan's 1972 Land Use Without Zoning.
Siegan's book focused on Houston and how that city has developed a system of homeowner associations and protective covenants that does the work zoning was supposed to do at a much lower cost. Nelson's book looks at the huge growth of homeowner associations and covenants across the nation. Almost all new developments today, says Nelson, use such covenants, suggesting that zoning is not doin the job of protecting home values that it was supposed to do.
Homeowner associations are a market response to people's desires to live in a certain kind of neighborhood. Developers realized that, for a few extra dollars per housing unit, protective covenants can substantially increase sale prices.
Homeowner associations are not without controversy. A few years ago, such associations were advised by attorneys that if they did not aggressively challenge every single minor infraction of their covenants, they would lose the right to enforce any of them. This advice, which was probably wrong, led to lots of stories of absurd cases over the color of people's homes, the curtains in the windows, and so forth. Today, the Community Associations Institute advises homeowner associations to take a more reasonable approach to enforcing covenants.
The American Planning Association says that about 12 percent of Americans are lucky enough to live in places that have no zoning (although the APA doesn't consider them lucky). Everywhere else, homeowner association covenants are written on top of zoning codes. Nelson thinks that some homeowner associations might want to secede from city zoning authorities and he outlines legislation that would make such secession possible. He also suggests that the legislation should allow neighborhoods that have no covenants to form homeowner associations and write such covenants (which neighborhoods in Houston can already do).
This book should be on the shelf of every American dreamer concerned about land-use policy. I hope to soon hear that some state introduces legislation along the lines that Nelson has described.
Siegan's book focused on Houston and how that city has developed a system of homeowner associations and protective covenants that does the work zoning was supposed to do at a much lower cost. Nelson's book looks at the huge growth of homeowner associations and covenants across the nation. Almost all new developments today, says Nelson, use such covenants, suggesting that zoning is not doin the job of protecting home values that it was supposed to do.
Homeowner associations are a market response to people's desires to live in a certain kind of neighborhood. Developers realized that, for a few extra dollars per housing unit, protective covenants can substantially increase sale prices.
Homeowner associations are not without controversy. A few years ago, such associations were advised by attorneys that if they did not aggressively challenge every single minor infraction of their covenants, they would lose the right to enforce any of them. This advice, which was probably wrong, led to lots of stories of absurd cases over the color of people's homes, the curtains in the windows, and so forth. Today, the Community Associations Institute advises homeowner associations to take a more reasonable approach to enforcing covenants.
The American Planning Association says that about 12 percent of Americans are lucky enough to live in places that have no zoning (although the APA doesn't consider them lucky). Everywhere else, homeowner association covenants are written on top of zoning codes. Nelson thinks that some homeowner associations might want to secede from city zoning authorities and he outlines legislation that would make such secession possible. He also suggests that the legislation should allow neighborhoods that have no covenants to form homeowner associations and write such covenants (which neighborhoods in Houston can already do).
This book should be on the shelf of every American dreamer concerned about land-use policy. I hope to soon hear that some state introduces legislation along the lines that Nelson has described.
