Cite 27 was edited by William F. Stern and Bruce C. Webb. In his contribution "ForeCite: Through the Zoning Glass," Webb writes:
As a meeting ground for abstract prescriptions of the law and planners' visions of urban form and structure, zoning can be a complicated matter. Even the terminology can be befuddling: drawing on the rarefied language of the legal brief and the professional patois of the planning, urban design, and architecture professions, mixing in terms and concepts from the social sciences, the writing of a zoning ordinance struggles to wrest clarity from a semantic labyrinth. Most zoning documents spend the bulk of their pages defining terms, yet the desired end results are often relatively simple and straightforward.
Zoning for Houston has evolved from the extensive research of Councilman Jim Greenwood's numerous task forces, abetted by the mayor's reluctant, but sudden, burst of enthusiasm and defined by the city's growing planning and zoning department. It will be used, initially at least, primarily to protect single-family residential neighborhoods from the encroachment ol myriad urban forces that pose a threat to their vitality, their sanctity, and - more importantly, perhaps - their property values.
Zoning was first envisioned in metropolitan New York City in the early 1900s as both a restrictive and a prescriptive measure. It was implemented to restrict nonconforming (and often more lucrative) uses from overwhelming and changing the character ol a district, as well as to limit potentially dangerous living and working conditions associated with certain uses and activities. The city's 1916 zoning laws were also intended to control the height and shape of the skyscraper to ensure that air and light would reach the streets and, later, public open spaces ...
James B. Blackburn, Jr.; Stuart Brodsky; Tom Curtis; David Dillon; Margie Elliott; Laura Furman; Archie Henderson; Stephen Klinebert; Peter Flagg Maxson; O. Jack Mitchell; John Mixon; Gerald Moorehead; William Sherman; William F. Stern; Rives Taylor; and Drexel Turner.