Zoning laws are a combination of unelected civil servants, elected legislators, and the legal system establishing a minimum set of guardrails to prevent shit li

Zoning laws are a combination of unelected civil servants, elected legislators, and the legal system establishing a minimum set of guardrails to prevent shit like building strip clubs and toxic waste incinerators in inappropriate places. They're far from foolproof, are frequently gimmicked to the benefit of wealthy political donors, and they're not something the public gets any kind of real say in. There's no relationship between zoning laws and HOA covenants around what color your mailbox can be or how many cars you can have in your driveway (for example). Some kind of minimal social contract is provably necessary to prevent society from devolving into some kind of libertarian Mad Max you-keep-what-you-kill hellscape, but that hardly requires granting the people around me authority to make arbitrary decisions around trivial aspects of how I choose to maintain my property.