Land Use and Environmental Regulations

  Land Use Regulations

Until the 1920s, there are very limited concepts of land use control by the government. This changes dramatically nationwide with Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. Hoover is interested in assisting the poor living in tenements but also in helping businesses; he chooses housing as the vehicle to do both. He establishes a committee with four goals:

1. Increase the number of homeowners;
2. Improve the mortgage financing system;
3. Standardize building materials; and of interest here,
4. To encourage zoning to “protect homeowners from commercial and industrial intrusions.” (Knack 1996).

The Standard State Zoning Enabling Act is developed by this committee, printed, and made available for states to adopt in 1924. This Act authorizes local governments to establish zoning regulations to protect human health, morals, and welfare. The United States Supreme Court upheld this act in 1926 (Knack 1996).

Illinois’ first zoning statute is passed in 1919, predating the federal model. The next General Assembly repeals this act and replaces it with the Zoning Act of 1921. This act is challenged but ruled constitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1925 (Geselbracht 1977).

This zoning act is important to the future of the Illinois River because it establishes the authority of governmental entities to regulate land use. While zoning regulations do little to improve conditions within the Illinois River, it grants the government the authority to protect human health and welfare. Additional regulations in future years will prove to have a positive effect on the river’s water quality.