US Government Must Leave Zoning Decisions to Local Authorities

The US advocacy group criticized Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) new plan of zoning in country's neighborhoods, pointing out that zoning should be privilege of local authorities.

WASHINGON (Sputnik) — Decisions on zoning in US neighborhoods should be left to local government rather than national policy-makers, advocacy group Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Rick Manning said in a statement.

“Let me make this clear,” Manning said in the statement issued on Wednesday. “Local zoning decisions should be left to local government where the people most affected make the decisions and not by some pointy headed bureaucrat looking at a census map from Washington, DC.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) unveiled a new plan to break down patterns of segregation across the country and reduce racial concentrations of poverty.

HUD said the new rules would help areas that receive government housing funding to meet their equal opportunities obligations.

“Once again, the Obama administration thinks it knows best for local communities, and is attempting to usurp the most basic zoning authority in a misguided attempt to create equal outcomes rather than equal opportunities,” Manning argued.

HUD announced the new rules just weeks after the US Supreme Court upheld the right to challenge practices that negatively impact minorities. The Court supported that right even in cases where there was no proof of intentional discrimination by government agencies or businesses.

Americans for Limited Government, formerly Americans for Limited Terms, is a conservative political advocacy organization.