Back in 1996 George Liebmann wrote in Regulation about how “Zoning makes it more difficult to keep aged parents close by and care for them.” He recommended that “Duplex homes and accessory apartments should be permitted in all new residential construction. Housing options such as these allow elderly persons to live near their adult children without intruding on their children’s privacy.” (“Modernization of Zoning,” pp. 71, 75)

Now the Washington Post reports

The Rev. Kenneth Dupin, who leads a small Methodist church [in Salem, Virginia], has a vision: As America grows older, its aging adults could avoid a jarring move to the nursing home by living in small, specially equipped, temporary shelters close to rel​a​tives​.So he invented the MEDcottage, a portable high-tech dwelling that could be trucked to a family’s back yard and used to shelter a loved one in need of special care.

Skeptics, however, have a different name for Dupin’s product: the granny pod.

Protective of zoning laws, some local officials warn that Dupin’s dwellings — which have been authorized by Virginia’s state government — will spring up in subdivisions all over the state, creating not-in-my-back-yard tensions with neighbors and perhaps being misused.…

the nation’s elderly population is set to double in just 10 years as more and more baby boomers hit retirement age. Surveys by AARP and others also show that large majorities prefer to live in their own homes or with loved ones rather than in retirement communities.

But local officials think their zoning rules are more important than keeping families together. They fume that allowing such small structures for grandma would “turn our zoning ordinance upside down.” And what’s more important, saving money and keeping grandma near her family or strict adherence to zoning regulations? Local officials think the choice is clear.

In this case, though, state officials disagreed. Virginia just passed a law “that supersedes local zoning laws in the state and allows families to install such a dwelling on their property” — but only “with a doctor’s order.” They couldn’t just allow families to choose a living arrangement that suits them. No, a doctor has to authorize it.

It’s sort of like medical marijuana — a slight increase in freedom, but also an increase in the medicalization of normal individual decisions.