The Chron calls them a regulatory silver bullet which allows cities, especially Houston, the ability to regulate activities that might otherwise be out of reach:
Houston Mayor Bill White said the city’s “market-oriented” land-use system — also known as a lack of zoning — means that “use of nuisance laws becomes more important in making sure that somebody’s use of their land does not unreasonably interfere with their neighbor’s property rights.”
White said the city’s use of nuisance litigation in the coming year may or may not increase depending on whether certain businesses decide to change their tunes. He acknowledged that recent successes in this area, aided by some pro-bono work from private law firms, have helped reduce pollution and close sex-related businesses near neighborhoods that had been magnets for crime.
Nuisance laws go back centuries and long have functioned as a tool of governments and private land owners to haul into court those they believe are using their property in a way that infringes on rights of others.
Still, the laws, which have local and state components, largely have been subsumed in modern times with the advent of zoning and other forms of regulation, said Matthew Festa, a South Texas College of Law property land use professor.
