Exclusionary Zoning and Equal Protection

It is something of a natural law of urban development that population pressure is exerted from the center of the city outward. Increasing dilapidation of housing in central cities, plus the forcible dislocation of many families by urban renewal programs, have increased the outward pressure in recent years. Far from welcoming would-be emigrants from the city, suburban communities have often responded by enacting zoning regulations which have the effect of barring prospective lower-income residents…
This exclusionary zoning has contributed to the segregation of the poor in the cities from the wealthy in the suburbs. The amount of low and lower middle income housing constructed in the suburbs since World War II has been minimal despite a plethora of federal programs. Federal housing subsidy programs have, in fact, been so seriously impaired that a presidentail study committee recommended giving the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development limited authority to preempt local zoning codes. Public officials in large cities have expressed increasing concern over growing suburban abuse of the zoning power, and the practice has come under administrative and legislative attack. But courts have been reluctant to confront the problem.

Harvard Law Review

May 1971

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