Mandated large-lot, single-family building codes get a court date

For your 'why-things-are-the-way-they-are' file.

Litigation has been filed in Federal Court challenging the legality of zoning in River Hills that prevents multi-family housing. The story is behind the Journal Sentinel's paywall, for now. 

The problem, according to a new federal lawsuit, is that River Hills' approach of zoning the entire village for large-lot single-family homes violates state growth management law and the federal Fair Housing Act.

I have been writing for years about the larger consequences and context for this reality - - from exclusionary zoning to Interstate construction that served commuters and further uprooted and blocked Milwaukee central city residents from housing, neighbors, businesses and opportunities - -  


- - and I want to note that large-lot home building codes got on the books in other Milwaukee suburbs, like Mequon in Ozaukee County, and Chenequa in Waukesha (See Chenequa zoning code, p. 13), which helped keep Milwaukee isolated and fueled the government-led regional segregation that is too often reported as a City of Milwaukee-only phenomenon.

SE WI segregation fueled by governments which need to address it

Eight years ago, I posted excerpts of a powerful Journal Sentinel op-ed about it all, and I commend it to you, in full.

The price of covert apartheid