However, zoning is clearly popular today. You don’t have to attend many zoning or planning board meetings in suburban New Jersey to realize that. I have often heard “this plan violates zoning!” held up as a reason to deny it, as if the zoning is some kind of religious edict.

Just because something is popular does not mean it should be preserved. Certainly not. But it definitely makes it more challenging to reform it. Zoning is a civil rights issue, so the courts should have a role in dismantling it.