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hamburglar 3 days ago

Barring restrictions is absolutely not “forcing” anyone to do anything. Take away all restrictions on my lot and I am still not forced to develop on it.

ratelimitsteve 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

A law negating a covenant everyone entered into willingly and freely does kinda alter the deal after its made. I do wholeheartedly agree that removing zoning restrictions doesn't impinge on anyone's liberty though.

wqaatwt 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

> and freely

If that was the case i.e. nobody wanted to build anything new on their land why would the “convenant” be necessary. Or is the idea that former owners can impose these decisions they made on anyone they sell the property to?

ratelimitsteve 2 days ago | parent [-]

We allow all sorts of encumbrances to transfer with property. You can sell a house with an easement that lets neighbors use some amount of your property for access, with a tenant who has a contractual right to stay to the end of a lease regardless of what the new owner wants, or with a covenant to limit development. Hell, a couple years back an entire mall sold for $20 with the agreement that the buyer was assuming all of the seller's debt and also the seller's contractual obligation to perform road maintenance. If you couldn't transfer these agreements with a sale they'd be useless even absent a sale. Either no one would buy the property because its unsellable and the value would plummet or you would buy it with the encumbrances, transfer ownership from your left hand to your right hand to remove them and then do what you want.

tptacek 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Covenants are already heavily regulated and have a pretty icky history in the US.

bpt3 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Let me know your address so I can buy the adjacent properties and force you to live next to a landfill or move away from your now-worthless home.

hamburglar 3 days ago | parent [-]

It may surprise you but I’m not actually scared of that happening. I’m actually zoned for the house next door to me to turn into a seven story building, which many in my city think is horrifying, but I’m not scared of that either.

bpt3 2 days ago | parent [-]

If you legitimately would have no issues being surrounded by a landfill, you're such an outlier that your opinion is basically meaningless.

hamburglar a day ago | parent [-]

You’re jumping to conclusions. I didn’t say I wouldn’t have any issue with it; I said I’m not scared it’s going to happen.

I have evaluated the risk and am sufficiently certain that won’t happen. The lots around my house are far too expensive to turn into landfill.