HUD Targets Suburban Zoning As Racist, Official Warns

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Investors Business Daily:

The Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to expand its view of discriminatory housing practices to include local zoning rules to control building in suburban neighborhoods, a New York county official battling the federal agency warns.

 

Rob Astorino, the Republican executive of Westchester County, says his Manhattan suburb illustrates what the rest of the country can expect under a sweeping anti-discrimination regulation HUD is expected to finalize by Christmas.

 

"The battle for zoning in Westchester County (will be) the battle everywhere," Astorino said Tuesday during an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) briefing on Capitol Hill.

 

HUD has cut off $17 million in funding to Westchester for refusing to sue local municipalities to modify zoning ordinances to accommodate more subsidized housing. HUD claims the ordinances, which like almost every locality in America, set limits on building density, are racially "exclusionary."

 

"HUD has said that even quarter-acre (lot) single-family zoning, in their view, may very well be discriminatory and perpetuate 'segregation,'" Astorino said. "And (it) must be looked at, and even maybe attacked."