Community associations and other forms of collective ownership of residential property have spread across the United States over the past 30 years, says Robert H. Nelson of the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs.

• About 15 percent of Americans now live in housing subject to such collective ownership arrangements.

• In almost all cases, the collective ownership instruments were established by a developer prior to the construction of the housing project.

• In existing neighborhoods under individual property ownership, municipal zoning has instead served to protect the quality of the neighborhood environment.

Nelson proposes a new legal instrument be enacted to permit existing neighborhoods to establish collective private property right regimes of their own to replace municipal zoning and provide certain services. Neighborhood property owners could vote -- a supermajority but not unanimity would be required -- to create a private "neighborhood association" to regulate land use and perform other service functions in their area.

Source: Abstract, Social Science Research Network; Robert H. Nelson, "Privatizing the Neighborhood: A Proposal to Replace Zoning with Private Collective Property Rights to Existing Neighborhoods," George Mason Law Review, Summer 1999.