[staybailey]

The standard solution to this is called an easement, which basically means I own the air rights over your property so that I can ensure my views are unobstructed.

Getting rid of the idea of owning the neighbors airspace entails figuring out how to fairly allocate easements that generally don't currently exist because of legacy reasons.

[nickff]

The issue (from a government perspective) with easements as opposed to zoning is that cities won't profit (as much) off the sale of easements. Governments make a lot of money from development, and they're not about to give it up.