Forgive me if I don't want auto lots, rental properties, and ugly fast food joints all over the place. I would oppose federal or state regulation to the death, but believe that local governments should be proactive in preventing sprawl.
Would you propose some sort of multi-county regional government? Or statewide zoning ordinances? I think the cure would be far worse than the disease.
Individual suburbs can, and do, pass their own zoning ordinances, and that's fine. But minimum residential lot sizes, and prohibitions of commercial and industrial properties in individual burbs simply forces development farther out. Hence, "sprawl." Which, as I've opined, isn't a bad thing.
I hope the possible collapse of overpriced zoned housing doesn't get you, Clemenza. It is not likely to be much of a problem down here in Houston. As a good Freeper, you are welcome to move down into one of our houses. You could probably live in a mansion by your standards. Talk about value!
I lived up in the NYC area and experienced zoning insanity first hand. My experience was the exact opposite of what you say. Zoning boards kept commercial competition out, forcing us to pay higher prices or drive long distances to malls, restaurants, theaters, etc.
I've lived in Houston and Atlanta and prefer either to the NYC area. To each his own, I guess. In Houston, stores, restaurants, shops, theaters, parking, etc., are much more convenient. Deed restrictions keep apartments, car lots, etc., out of the subdivisions. The only areas that suffer invasions of unwanted car lots, etc., are old areas whose deed restrictions have expired through resident neglect.
Houston is surrounded by developable land and an expanding, though crowded, freeway system. It is that and low cost non-union labor that have kept the price of housing quite affordable here. Many of the houses and roads are being built by Hispanic laborers -- one of the only benefits to mass illegal immigration.