Zoning for Good

In an interview with Governing’s Carl Smith, Sara Bronin outlines the major points in her new book, Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World.

Through the book, Bronin hopes to elevate the role of zoning in the housing and development discourse and highlight how zoning codes subtly — and not so subtly — shape and improve American communities.

State and local policymakers shouldn't feel hamstrung by zoning codes that are often out of date and don't reflect the values we have today. My book is a call to action for anybody who can influence zoning codes to modernize them for the better, to update them to ensure that they are being used for good.

As Bronin explains, “Zoning has cumulative effects on individual decisions and individuals’ freedom to choose how they want to live.” Zoning can impact how close your home is to a hospital or a supermarket and whether your child can ride a bike or walk to school.

More crucially, zoning determines what kind of housing can be built and where. Today, experts like Bronin and others blame zoning codes in large part for limiting the housing supply and driving up housing costs.

But zoning can shape more resilient, sustainable communities, too: in Tucson, Arizona, the zoning code calls for drought-tolerant landscaping, which helps the city reduce its water use. In Hartford, Connecticut, where Bronin served as head of the planning and zoning commission, zoning ordinances include street trees and green infrastructure, as well as provisions for new bike lanes and sidewalks.