hard · National Real Estate Exam Land Use
A suburban municipality adopts a zoning ordinance requiring a minimum lot size of five acres for any new residential construction townwide, citing a stated goal of preserving rural character and limiting strain on wells and septic systems. Evidence shows the ordinance's practical effect, and its underlying intent among several council members, is to prevent construction of any housing affordable to low- and moderate-income families.
A court reviewing a challenge to this ordinance would most likely find it to be:
- Valid, since minimum lot size is always a routine, unreviewable police power
- Invalid exclusionary zoning, since its true purpose is to exclude affordable housing
- Invalid spot zoning, since the ordinance applies only to one type of housing
- Valid, since a stated environmental rationale defeats any exclusionary-effect challenge