While conducting research for a new novel, I recently read the current Comprehensive Plan for Missouri City, Texas. In discussing development in the city’s four main commercial areas, the plan states that the “general intent” is to “allow future land uses to be more responsive to market realities.” If this is truly the intention, then the city should abolish all land use regulations and allow the market to freely operate.
So long as a property owner must grovel at the feet of zoning officials for permission to use his land, market realities cannot be fully realized.
In a free market, individuals are free to produce, use, and trade values as they deem best, as long as they respect the freedom of others to do the same. In a free market, a landowner can use his property to produce and trade the values that he believes others want and need. He can respond to the market quickly without first seeking the government’s approval. And consumers will ultimately either affirm or negate his judgment. If the landowner’s judgment is wrong, the land will be converted to other uses. That is how land use is truly responsive to market realities.
However, if a property owner must obtain permission to use his land, he cannot act by right. He must act only as zoning officials allow. Certainly, zoning officials may allow him to use his land as he desires. But there is no guarantee that they will. There is no guarantee that government bureaucrats will recognize and respond to market realities. In the process, the landowner’s values, desires, and judgment are subordinated to the values, desires, and judgment of government officials.
The choices and actions of producers and consumers are what drive the market. But when government officials intervene, when government officials dictate what can and cannot be done with land, then the choices of producers and consumers are irrelevant.
While it is mildly laudable that Missouri City officials want land use to be responsive to market realities, the proper way to do that is to allow the market to operate freely. The moral way for land use to be responsive to market realities is to protect the freedom of market participants.