Local Power and Zoning

Paper Summary:

In order to understand what factors to determine the division of authority between local governments and the states, this paper clarifies the effect of local government?s autonomy behind zoning decision mechanisms undertaken by local governments. Section 2 explains two different legal terminologies - Home Rule and Dillon?s Rule. Section 3 explains that zoning is considered as a municipal property right in context of the Tiebout-Hamilton-Fischel world and is understood as the local ?police power?. Section 4 presents the debate of recent proposals, examines which states were likely to take over land use regulation from local governments and presents a case study of compromise between Home Rule and state intervention: the Long Island Pine Barrens Protection Act. The paper includes tables and maps.

From the Paper:

"Most characterize Dillon's rule as a rule of "strict" construction that gives as little power as can be reasonably intimated by the state legislature's grant of authority (e.g. Ownes, 2000). In Dillon's Rule, interpreting that local governments are creatures of the states, empowerment depends on statutory action at the state level, is just one of the many rules of statutory construction employed by courts. In particular, some state courts use Dillon's Rule as a guide when interpreting grants of authority from the state legislature to local governments."

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