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- Title
Neighbors Without Notice: The Unequal Treatment of Tenants and Homeowners In Land Use Hearing Procedures.
- Authors
Schindler, Sarah; Zale, Kellen
- Abstract
Recent empirical work has suggested that the people who show up at land use hearings tend to be whiter, wealthier, older, and more likely to be homeowners than the surrounding community. They also are more opposed to new housing construction in their communities. Thus, the views of these groups are amplified and the outsized opposition to new housing (often referred to as NIMBYism) stymies needed development--despite the fact that these voices are not representative of the community as a whole. Scholars have just begun to explore the question of why community members who support development fail to have their voices heard. Existing scholarship has identified several reasons why lower income people and people of color are underrepresented at public hearings, such as scheduling of meetings during the workday, the burdens that attendance imposes on those who lack childcare, and the lack of communication to the public about hearings in languages other than English. But these barriers to participation are only part of the story. Relying on an original compilation and analysis of empirical data, we argue in this Article that there is an even more fundamental reason for the underrepresentation of these community members: Because they are not invited. Our analysis shows that unlike homeowners, tenants--who are disproportionately lower income and more likely to be Black and Latinx--often do not receive notice of public hearings under local ordinances. We find that, of the 75 largest cities in the United States, only twelve cities affirmatively provide notice of public land use hearings to tenants, whereas nearly all of these jurisdictions affirmatively provide notice to property owners. Our research has major implications for land use and local government scholarship. The prevailing pattern of non-notice to tenants reflects a broader pattern of anti-tenancy that exists throughout the legal system. Anti-tenancy is rooted in race and class biases, and thus contributes to deepening wealth inequality and systemic racism. Non-notice to tenants not only exacerbates this systemic inequality, but is also economically inefficient, and may amount to a due process violation in some instances. For these reasons, we contend that the failure to notify tenants of land use changes in their neighborhood is normatively unjustified. As a prescriptive response, we offer a model ordinance, showing how local governments can readily modify their notice requirements to include tenants with minimal cost or logistical friction.
- Subjects
TENANTS; HOMEOWNERS; LAND use; RACISM; JUSTICE administration
- Publication
Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, 2024, Vol 59, Issue 2, p339
- ISSN
0017-8039
- Publication type
Article