Taking a page from nearby Arlington, a group of residents in Alexandria has filed suit in Circuit Court over the City Council’s decision to effectively gut single-family zoning in the city and replace it with a free-for-all.
As is the case with plaintiffs taking on the Arlington County Board over the same issue, the Alexandria group is alleging a host of substantive and procedural errors.
Color us ones who are not fans of extraneous lawsuits against governments and their officials. We winced, years back, when some residents took legal action (unsuccessfully, as events proved and as we expected) to stop the Arlington School Board from changing the name of Washington-Lee High School to Washington-Liberty.
In that case, while one could think the action a misguided decision by a self-satisfied, self-indulgent body, it was a choice the School Board was legally entitled to make.
On the free-range zoning issue, however, there are a host of fundamental legal principles at stake, and it is perfectly reasonable – in fact, laudable – for residents to expend the effort to hold localities accountable, despite (in the Arlington case) an aggressive to the point of almost obnoxious response by attorneys for the government.
That is not the view of the editorial page of one Northern Virginia newspaper, which recently criticized the “selfishness” and “self-absorbed” nature of those mounting the challenges.
What a load of bunk. Or hokum. Or hooey, even!
Questioning haphazard zoning changes is not vexatious litigation; it is a quest for adjudication of some fundamental questions related to the limits of government power.
Alas, the days of “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” (attributed, incorrectly, to Voltaire) are loooooooong gone. Even the most basic recourse of protecting one’s rights through the legal system, a seminal principle of a free society, is now viewed by some through an overtly political lens. Sigh.
Our view? Sue away, local residents. We all deserve to know if local leaders are acting within their authority.
