Janet Lee Westphal submitted the following letter to the Chronicle:
In your article “City moves closer to first zoning law,” I was outraged to learn that the City Council and Mayor White are just going to deliberately ignore the wishes of Houstonians and blithely let the FAA violate the property rights of Houstonians by creating zoning around the airports.
Instead of going along with the FAA, the City Council and Mayor White should have the
courage to stand up to the FAA and let them know that Houstonians won’t accept
zoning in any form. Houstonians have defeated zoning laws on three different occasions because they realize that zoning will violate their rights to do with
their property as they see fit.
Does the City Council think that by calling it another name (land use regulation) that citizens won’t recognize it for what it is—a blatant attempt by government officials to tell home owners, business owners, and developers what they can and cannot do with their property? Existing homeowners and businesses throughout Houston should contact their City Council member and voice their concern.
Once the city government starts passing zoning regulations, not only will the people in these airport regions no longer have a right to decide what they’ll do with their property, but who’s going to stop the city government from limiting zoning to just these areas?
Janet Lee Westphal
Janet's letter was published in the Houston Chronicle on June 30, 2008.
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