Zoning: Group Home Complaints
The development of group homes was hampered by three primary factors and they were all interrelated. Local zoning ordinances, and land use policies and practices that were designed to protect the character of neighborhoods and property values contributed to significant delays in establishing group homes. The process of meeting these requirements, obtaining licenses and permits, securing zoning variances, and the public hearings that followed led to a series of objections by neighborhoods where the homes would be located – declining property values, increased traffic, home maintenance issues, behaviors of the people living in the group homes, and neighborhood "saturation." Neighborhood impact studies did not support these fears or perceptions. Lawsuits that grew out of these unresolved issues raised questions concerning the relationship between zoning and the integration of people with disabilities into society.
A home in a suburban neighborhood is not exactly what this family envisioned when they made their purchase.
Affecting the Establishment of Group Homes for the Mentally Disabled
Zoning Case May Have Wide Reaching Effect
Group Homes for the Mentally Retarded: An Investigation of Neighborhood Property Impacts