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Zoning Destroys Communities

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By STEVEN ALLISON Special to the Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 12, 2008

Regarding "How Florida Lost Its Sense Of Place," (Commentary, June 8.)

Thank you for printing Professor Ray Oldenburg's thoughtful analysis of the nature of contemporary urban development. While his points are familiar territory for those versed in urban planning literature, I am hopeful that a broader audience benefited from your choice to publish this piece.

Many of his points are givens; others are subject to healthy debate. I concur with his assertion that we have experienced a diminished sense of community over the past several decades, although I question how much is by choice and how much is dictated by the nature of development. I don't believe it realistic to think that families in large numbers will choose substantially smaller living abodes in the foreseeable future, desires for a sense of community and concerns with energy costs notwithstanding.

I also concur with his assertion that our form of community development was encouraged by the advent of single-use zoning regulations in the 1920s. I would add that the very establishment of zoning regulations has been contrary to healthy communities, and I say that as a person involved with zoning regulation for the past 30 years, primarily in a public-sector regulatory role. It is my view that our overall development status would be superior had zoning and its corollaries never been invented, and I challenge anyone to demonstrate otherwise. Further diminishments of the urban fabric were effected by the well-meaning but ill-advised creation of planned development district regulations and "master planned communities," as well as the erosion of subdivision regulations that dictated development in the form of blocks, not acreage.

Professor Oldenburg's advocacy of "third places" is inherently logical. However, in the context of the current and ever-growing regulatory community, such sensible solutions are nearly impossible to achieve. Again, planning and zoning regulations, and an inherent mind-set among those administering such rules that we must evaluate development proposals from a worst common denominator viewpoint, undermine prospects for innovation and creativity. While both entities warrant criticism, the sins of the regulatory community far outweigh those of developers relative to the form of our urban areas.

As a final ancillary note, as our community debates the costs and benefits of light rail or other forms of mass public transportation from cost and efficiency standpoints, we should not ignore sociological ramifications. Public transportation, if viable, fosters interaction and communication among differing socio-economic entities in a public arena, which I believe is to the benefit of all.

Steven H. Allison, a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, lives in Temple Terrace.

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