Choice & Opportunity
by Greg Dale

  • this article is currently only available by mail as part of back issue #3
    Is helping to ensure that your zoning code allows for affordable housing one of your ethical obligations as a planning commissioner?

    • Read excerpts from article:

    Suppose you are on a planning commission that is considering a draft revision to your zoning code. During the course of public hearings on the proposed code, representatives of a low income housing advocacy group appear and argue that the proposed zoning does not allow for the development of affordable housing, and is therefore preventing low income residents who might want to live in your community from being able to. They further argue that other regulations, including your subdivision regulations, have standards that are very expensive to comply with, resulting in even higher housing costs. On the other hand, you know there is a great deal of sentiment within your community opposed to the development of low income housing.

    How do you balance these interests? Are there any ethical considerations involved?

    The issue of a community's responsibility to provide for affordable housing was at the heart of the Britton case, decided this past summer. The New Hampshire Supreme Court found that the town's zoning ordinance was "blatantly exclusionary" because it prevented low and moderate income families from being able to live in the community. The Court ruled that under New Hampshire's planning and zoning enabling laws, the town had an obligation to provide its fair share of affordable housing within the region. The Court noted that municipalities are not "isolated enclaves" removed from broader regional concerns. Many legal experts believe that this decision may have a widespread impact because most other states' planning enabling laws have language similar to that interpreted by the New Hampshire Court. ...