SAPPHO@SRI-NIC.ARPA (08/22/86)
No, you do not have the right to forbid me to do what I like with my property because it "lowers the value" of your neighboring property. That argument could be used to prevent me from selling my house to a black family. If you want to justify zoning, think of more concrete harm that it protects people against. Otherwise people can be forbidden to do absolutely anything on their own property as long as it bothers the neighbors. If I wish to live in a commune, however neatly and quietly, or live with a female lover, my neighbors can forbid me because it lowers the value of their homes to have to live near people like me. If I want to build lower income housing on my property, my neighbors can forbid me. If I want to buy a sleazy hotel and fix it up into a shelter for homeless families (as one group in my town did), my neighbors can forbid me because they feel the value of their home is degraded by their having to live near homeless people. And if my tree is shading over my neighbor's solar collector, who decides whose property rights take precedence? The government? Any time my neighbor doesn't like something about my house? Lynn Gazis sappho@sri-nic ------- -------