Does Zoning Kill Dreams?

As the semester concludes and students begin the migration home—mostly to the City or further south—Cornellians will notice something out of the ordinary. Emblazoned in blood-red scrawlings on large signs in an otherwise idyllic town, “ZONING KILLS DREAMS” sums up the conflict ripping apart a small town on the periphery of Ithaca.

With 2,910 people, Caroline, New York is a very small town. A thirty-minute drive from Ithaca and the last settlement in Tompkins County (the county Ithaca shares) on New York State Route 79– few students have reason to visit. However, Cornellians journeying to New York City, Scranton, Philadelphia, or just about anywhere else must pass through this small slice of rural America on their way.

And what a slice of rural America Caroline is. In thirty minutes on NY-79, almost everything changes. Gone are the high-rise buildings of the Commons and (recently, unfortunately) Collegetown. The ever-active streets of Ithaca are but a faint memory, and rainbow flags are replaced with Trump signs and banners.

Perhaps the most significant change, though, is not as visible. The small town of Caroline has no zoning laws. The local government has no power to control what property owners do on their land. From Caroline’s incorporation in 1811 until 2022, this system went unchanged. With so few people in such a large area and little interest in large commercial development, zoning laws were not necessary for ensuring orderly development. Anyone can build almost anything in the Town of Caroline. Barring state and county-level restrictions, property owners have unfettered power to manage their property and buildings however they wish.

Yet earlier this year, the town government proposed a series of reforms to regulate the use of land. The response was—for a place the size of Caroline—deafening. Protests attracting hundreds were staged outside the town hall, an unending series of large signs were erected (decrying the killing of dreams, for example), and several social media communities were hatched to organize dissent.

The zoning law itself covers an extensive system for a town the size of Caroline. The law begins by dividing the Town of Caroline into eight hamlets with more restrictive zoning conventions than the majority of the town (which will be converted to agricultural zoning). Each of the new hamlets has different zoning regulations to encourage development in a “manner consistent with the … character” already existing in each. For example, the new hamlet of Brooktondale will have “smaller lots, shorter front setbacks, and a more residential neighborhood character” written into law.

The commission does not stop at attempting to preserve Caroline’s character, though. It goes much further, even mandating the minimum size of windows for storefronts in certain areas. As part of the new law, new construction or certain changes to existing construction must go through a Site Plan review system. 

The town council was reportedly caught off guard by the volume of critical feedback. Instead of a measured response regarding a routine law found in any other locality, town planners received death threats and massive (for Caroline’s size) protests.

Amidst the controversy, Dollar General attempted to begin construction of a new location in Caroline. In response, the town government passed a complete moratorium on commercial development to ensure compliance with the forthcoming zoning laws. While the town insisted that stopping the project was simply “due diligence,” there were many concerns that the store would not comport well with Caroline’s town culture. In response, a petition attracting eight pages of signatures was filed against the moratorium by Caroline residents. Reading in part, “it is not the Town Board’s job to decide what businesses should be here,” the petition reveals the core of the dilemma in Caroline.

Even merely driving through the town at 35 miles per hour, the oft-mocked yard signs make the issue clear as day. From “Zoning means control” to the recently installed “We’re the reason they want zoning, They’re the reason we don’t” and of course, “Zoning kills dreams,” the opposition to Caroline’s zoning law is about autonomy. Whether the Caroline Residents Against Zoning group has substantive critiques of the zoning law or not, many will lose the ability to freely control their property as they used to.

Factually speaking, the chorus of yard signs screaming at passers-by on Route 79 are correct. Zoning does mean control. Whether it be restrictions on multi-family dwellings or even small solar installations, the town government will wield much more control over Caroline if this ordinance becomes law. Yet there’s something more in the law, too. In addition to the arguably excessive authority Caroline gives itself, the town government also promises to guard against commercial sprawl.

Caroline is a small slice of rural America. Many Cornellians rarely see rural America in such a distilled way, almost perfectly representative of the vast majority of the not-yet-urbanized portions of this country. The war on zoning (as one sign calls it) is still being waged across Caroline with no end in sight. Elections for the town board are scheduled for next year and, if the controversy is not settled by then, might end zoning in Caroline before it can even begin.

Cornell is a centrally planned environment. For more than one hundred years, a single bureaucracy has designed campus with more or less one vision in mind. Yet on this constructed tract of 2,300 acres, Uris and Morrill Halls coexist. One cannot walk five steps without happening upon a new architectural style, sometimes radically so– all designed by one institution. Thirty minutes away, a place that looks more or less the same throughout has developed, quietly and steadily, without a single written rule. There is no such whiplash in twenty minutes on Route 79 as in twenty seconds on Tower Road. Will zoning kill the dreams of Caroline’s residents? There is no way to tell. The opposition group, Caroline Residents Against Zoning, has effectively mobilized a massive campaign against the law. The yard signs, protests, social media groups, and petitions have proven the opposition is a big fish in a very small pond. For now, it seems the zoning commission’s dreams will be killed instead.

This article was originally published in the Cornell Review’s semesterly print edition.