Blanket Upzoning: A Solution to Housing Pressures?

With zoning reform efforts underway in cities and states around the country, Daniel Herriges undertakes the question of how blanket upzoning would actually affect property values.

Herriges focuses on the push to "upzone everything a little" by legalizing the construction of middle-density housing such as fourplexes and Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) on single-family lots, which some critics fear will lead to rampant speculation and redevelopment by investors. 

According to Herriges, zoning can only restrict development potential, not create it. Rather, "What creates that potential is genuine demand for the product: the finished building." In other words, upzoning will only result in development in places where the demand for development is already there. "Zoning does act as a limiting ingredient in places where more intense development would be economically viable right now: where there would be many ready buyers if it simply weren't illegal." 

With zoning restrictions, cities build up unmet demand that drives up housing costs and drives residents to seek out more affordable peripheral areas, encouraging sprawl. Herriges supports "broad but incremental upzoning" that will allow development to occur where demand—and potential profits—are highest, redistributing "where that development happens, on balance away from the suburban fringe and a small handful of hot neighborhoods."