7 Zoning and Land Use Controls § 42.02

Summary

• [1] History and Concept

  While height restrictions are usually imposed through comprehensive zoning ordinances, their use predates modern zoning. The earliest height restrictions were imposed by Boston, Massachusetts, in the 1880s. These restrictions combined both the police power and eminent domain power by providing for compensation. In Attorney General v. Williams,1 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in dicta suggested that height restrictions could have been imposed as a police power regulation without compensation. The court stated:

  It would be hard to say that this statute might not have been passed in the exercise of the police power, as other statutes regulating the erection of buildings in other cities are commonly passed.2

  This dictum was supported by the United State Supreme Court in Welch v. Swasey.3