Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician
That sends a bad message to investors and may end up harming property values within these commercial strips. We need to see stability in this--whether some kind of court decision or some sort of new ordinance preventing these arbitrary downzonings--in order to stabilize property values in these strips.
|
Zoning law is enshrined at the Federal level via a series of Supreme Court cases interpreting the 14th Amendment regarding regulatory takings. Zoning regulations may diminish the economic return on the property (which must be certain, not speculative). That is permissible. What isn't permissible is destroying the economic viability of the property or making it impossible to develop (e.g. requiring a 75 foot deep residential lot to have 100 foot setbacks for any structure built).
That won't change. However, that problem is true throughout the country. Chicago is hardly alone in aggressively applying zoning regulations to advance urban land use concepts.