Land-use control is a relatively new concept. For most of human history, it was assumed that people could do whatever they wished with their own property. However, societies have usually recognized that the way an individual uses private property can sometimes have harmful affects on neighbors.

Land-use planning has reached a new level of sophistication in developed countries over the last century. One of the first restrictions on land use in the United States, for example, was a 1916 New York City law limiting the size of skyscrapers because of the shadows they might cast on adjacent property. Within a decade, the federal government began to act aggressively on land control measures. It passed the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 in an attempt to control the exploitation of oil, natural gas, phosphate, and potash. It adopted the Standard State Zoning Act of 1922 and the Standard City Planning Enabling...