In light of Daren’s column in today’s News & Observer, I enjoyed Thomas Sowell’s comments on open space in his book Ever Wonder Why? (Hoover Press, 2006). Sowell focuses on open-space preservation efforts tied to land-use restrictions.
Another rationale for laws restricting land use is that “open space” is a good thing, that it prevents “overcrowding” for example. But preventing people from building homes in one place only makes the crowding greater in other places. This is just another fig leaf for the self-interest of those who want other people to be forced to live somewhere else.
Sowell laments the fact that many advocates for open space preservation are unwilling to spend their own money for that preservation.
Many restrictive land use laws in effect turn a chance that someone paid for into a guarantee that they did not pay for, such as a guarantee that a given community would retain its existing character.
