Short Circuit 148 | Are Apartments a Nuisance? Private Property and the Rise of Zoning

Short Circuit

In a special Short Circuit, Harvard Law Professor Molly Brady joins us to talk about an untold story from the rise of zoning law. A lot of the blame for our affordable housing crisis is often placed on the case Euclid v. Ambler Realty, where the Supreme court declared zoning (which includes prohibiting apartments) constitutional. But zoning was not the first try at limiting multifamily housing in certain neighborhoods. Professor Brady discusses how property covenants and nuisance law were employed to limit the availability of housing, and how when that didn’t work planners turned to the heavy hand of zoning. Along the way we discuss property deeds, spontaneous order, immigration, and the ever-beloved Coase Theorem.

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Transcript: https://ij.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Episode-148-Transcript.pdf
Professor Molly Brady, http://www.maureenebrady.com/
Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/272/365/
The Coase Theorem, https://www.libertarianism.org/topics/ronald-h-coase
From the IJ Archives: Let’s Take Zoning to Court, https://ij.org/sc_blog/lets-take-zoning-to-court/