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66 Harv. L. Rev. 1051 (1952-1953)
Zoning for Minimum Standards: The Wayne Township Case

handle is hein.journals/hlr66 and id is 1099 raw text is: ZONING FOR MINIMUM STANDARDS: THE WAYNE TOWNSHIP CASE Charles M. Haar * T HE postwar building boom has swept into the undeveloped land surrounding the larger cities.1 To an ever increasing ex- tent, populations have been moving from urban centers to the outlying rural areas. This expansion has not unnaturally been regarded by many localities as an invasion disruptive of a chosen way of life. Moreover, resentment has arisen on economic grounds as well as social: it is a fact of municipal economic ex- istence that real estate taxes on small houses do not cover the costs of servicing them.' Consequently suspicion and distrust have been stirred up; resort has been had to legal sanctions, es- pecially to legislation setting a minimum size for lots or dwell- ings; and this head-on collision between the city dweller seeking a new environment and the rural inhabitant wishing to preserve a low density settlement has, inevitably, reached the courts. The recent case of Lionshead Lake, Inc. v. Township of Wayne I is sig- nificant not only because it is the answer given to this problem by the newly revitalized and important New Jersey court, but also because it demonstrates the serious errors which result in this field of land-use planning when a court, even a good one, relies on bland generalities rather than on careful analysis. There was no dispute as to the facts. Wayne Township is, in terms of area, the largest municipality in Passaic County, cover- ing over 25 square miles, but its population aggregates less than * Assistant Professor of Law, Harvard Law School. A.B., New York University, 1940; M.A., Wisconsin, 1941; LL.B., Harvard, 1948. ' The 195o census indicates that the greatest increase in population over the past decade occurred in the suburbs of metropolitan areas. The central cities gained 13 per cent, or 5-7 million; outlying suburbs gained 35 per cent, or 9 million. See BUREAU OF THE CENSUS, POPULATION Or URBANIZED AREAS (Dep't Commerce, PC-3, No. 9, i95o) (Preliminary). I See BOSTON CITY PLANNING BOARD, REPORT ON THE INCOME AND COST SURVEY OF THE CITY OF BOSTON (1935); SCHUSSHEIM, COST OF MUNICIPAL SERVICES IN RESIDENTIAL AREAS 1-29 (unpublished thesis in Harvard University Library, I952). 3Io N.J. I65, 89 A.2d 693 (1952), appeal dismissed, 344 U.S. 919 (1953). 1051

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