Huh, that doesn't make any sense to me. Smaller houses would make cities more walkable/livable and thus be better for people's health and the environment.
Do people want those kinds of laws in order to protect their "investment"? I mean, I guess maybe your house will be worth more if all the other houses nearby are large and thus expensive?
Of course, now in the digital age, I guess such laws seem sillier than they did earlier. You no longer need a huge amount of books, music records, train set, pinball machines, billiard table etc., since you can fit all those things in a small computer.
In general, it's to prevent poor people or single people from moving into the neighborhood. The suburbs want middle class families, with children, and everyone else can FOAD.
They don't want to be walkable, because then the financial threshold of car ownership is not a requirement for getting there.
Extend the idea of a playpen to older kids, and that is an American suburban subdivision. The inconvenience and unaffordability are features, not bugs.
Zoning and construction regulation has obviously not kept pace with the changing social expectations of housing nor innovation in building construction. And you are right, a lot of it was enacted (especially minimum square footage zoning) in response to trying to keep "undesirables" out of areas in the aftermath of white flight from urban centers in the 50s / 60s and has remained ever since, since the children of the generation that enacted those laws grew up being preached to how bad non-conformance is and they are now the largest voting block in America.
Many cities and developers would either rather have bigger houses and the kind of people who can afford them, or squash as many people per square foot as possible by building up.
Do people want those kinds of laws in order to protect their "investment"? I mean, I guess maybe your house will be worth more if all the other houses nearby are large and thus expensive?
Of course, now in the digital age, I guess such laws seem sillier than they did earlier. You no longer need a huge amount of books, music records, train set, pinball machines, billiard table etc., since you can fit all those things in a small computer.