Abby wrote:

The house across the street was built on a remodel permit. The
original "house" is a small, stone foundation from the 1800s. All
else of the house was long gone. The "remodeled" house is 50 feet
from that foundation. How that got that past our notoriously strict
zoning board is a mystery. And I'm sure there is some entity that
would not allow the original foundation touched.

Some towns don't have zoning. The 4th largest city in the nation, for
example. Every few years HUD comes to Houston and does a land-use survey
(subtitled: "How can this be?") and they find that land use patterns don't
deviate much from those in cities with Draconian zoning rules; Heavy
industry is over there, shopping centers are on heavily-traveled streets,
light manufacturing is clustered in office parks, single-family residences
are in quiet neighborhoods, and so on. The shake their heads, put away their
pencils, and retire.

The potential problems with no zoning are usually self-correcting. A few
years ago, Shell Oil bought a lot on the most up-scale street in the city
(homes start at about $3 million) and announced they were going to build a
gas station! Several nearby neighbors were not enamored of the idea. They
cut up their Shell credit cards and said "We'll use our influence to ruin
your whole life and that of everybody you ever knew!" People like John
Connely, Robert Mossbacher, Michael DeBakey.

Shell donated the lot to the city for a pocket-park.

In areas of the city populated by the less-well-connected, more direct
methods are generally employed.

Arson, for example.