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Zoning
A video published last week by City Beautiful reveals the myths and misconceptions of Houston's land use regulation system.
City Beautiful
For other cities struggling with sky-high real estate prices, Colorado’s resort town offers some instructive lessons on what’s working — and what isn’t.
Next City
Far from an obscure, wonky local issue, zoning reform has the potential to advance social justice in American cities.
The New York Times
Policies too narrowly focused on design can drive up the cost of construction and prevent the development of affordable housing.
Slate
A row over two Transformers statues in a D.C. neighborhood lays bare the "absurdities" inherent in historical preservation, one writer argues.
Georgetown Metropolitan
Blog post
Ideally, planners could balance homeowners' interests in zoning against the public good, liberalizing zoning when prices got too high. But this may be politically impossible.
Desegregate CT's Zoning Atlas is a first-in-the-nation map showing how all 2,620 zoning districts and two subdivision districts in Connecticut treat housing—a massive undertaking that required a team to read 32,378 pages of zoning regulations.
Next City
While some lawmakers oppose recent efforts to reform housing policies, others argue the state's affordability crisis calls for bold action.
OC Register
The concept, touted as "hyper-local," can fail to take into account local conditions and historical inequities in American cities.
Bloomberg CityLab
Seattle's city council considers reducing 'arbitrary' and 'exclusionary' limits on home-based businesses.
The Urbanist
A counterintuitive argument contends that from a housing justice perspective, the Biden administration's attack on exclusionary zoning is imprudent.
Shelterforce Magazine
Overlay districts provide a tool for guiding the future of development and environmental controls at the neighborhood level.
WHYY
Historic zoning decisions have left a lasting legacy of housing inequality. Current leaders have the opportunity to change that.
Greater Greater Washington
Fans of Houston probably won't want to watch this video that calls the Space City a "jumbled up garbage town."
Half as Interesting
Zoning changes have been a popular way to increase density and affordable housing, but more diversified policies could fill in the gaps where zoning fails.
The Urbanist
Few cities are accomplishing such a swift and sweeping overhaul of its land use regulations as Everett, Washington, which just wrapped up its second major planning initiative in as many years on its way to launching a third.
The Urbanist
Blog post
The answer depends on how the question is phrased.
Another corruption scandal involving a Los Angeles city councilmember highlights the urgent need for major planning changes in the city.
Los Angeles Times
A residential skyscraper proposed for Manhattan's Upper West Side included a mechanical void that predated new rules in the city prohibiting the height-enhancing building practice. A judge still rejected the project as planned.
Gothamist
Since late 2019, developers who deliver affordable housing units in Austin have received bonuses in height, density, parking, and other regulatory metrics, leading to a large number of new affordable housing units in the pipeline.
Austin Monitor
