Hello Everyone:
Yours Truly is back from a earth shaking but otherwise fun politics-free Independence Day Holiday. A huge congratulations to Team USA on their fourth World Cup victory. The #USWNT beat Team Netherlands 2-0 in yesterday's grand finale. Hey FIFA pay the ladies #equalpay. Onward
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| Land of single-family homes googlemapmania.blogspot.com |
Today we begin a three-part series on the impact of single-family zoning ordinances. We will look at how a number of cities have used them to maintain the all-American dream of a detached home of one's own and the push back it is facing in the wake of the home affordability crisis.
Single-family zoning is sacrosanct in the United States. So sacrosanct that it has become embedded in local ordinances, designed to protect neighborhoods with pretty houses from denser developments. The image of a homeowner standing on their front porch, proudly surveying their property is about as American as you can get that is about to change.
A number of civic officials around the country are taking what appears to be heretical steps to upend the very American ideal of the single-family neighborhoods. For example, the Oregon state legislatures are considering a law that would end zoning for exclusively single-family in most of the state (citylab.com; July 2, 2019; date accessed July 8, 2019). Lawmakers in Blogger's home state of California have drafted a similar law (mercurynews.com; May 16, 2019; date accessed July 8, 2019). The Minneapolis City Council voted in December to terminate single-family zoning throughout the city (nytimes.com; Dec. 13, 2018; date accessed July 8, 2019). Democratic presidential nomination candidates Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Julian Castro have also taken up the cause.
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| Residential zoning map Minneapolis, Minnesota nytimes.com |
The movement to end single-family home zoning ordinance is a reckoning with the growing reality of the housing affordability crisis. It is no secret that rising housing cost, racial inequality, and climate change have made the American dream of a single-family home of one's own out of reach for many people. Many homeowners are concerned that without zoning laws, their property values and quality of life will deteriorate. Opponents warned that the new laws would be tantamount to bulldozing their neighborhoods (Ibid; June 18, 2019).
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| Comparative map of zoning codes urbanfootprint.com |
Today the impact of single-family zoning is very deep: "It is illegal on 75 percent of the residential land in many American cities to build anything other than detached single-family home" (Ibid).
That percentage is even higher in many suburbs and newly built Sun Belt cities, according to an analysis conducted by The Upshot and urbanfootprint.com, using software that maps and measures the affect of urban development and policy shifts.
Sonia Hirt, a professor at the University of Georgia's college of environment and design, told the New York Times, "If this moment feels like a radical shift,... it was also a radical shift a century when Americans began to imagine single-family zoning as possible, normal and desirable" (cornellpress.cornell.edu; date accessed July 8, 2019). This radical shift begat the Minneapolis zoning ordinances resulting in the city looking this:
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| Minneapolis 70% of residential land is zoned for single-family homes nytimes.com |
The goal of Minneapolis' new ordinance is ending single-family zoning on 70 percent of residential land, or about 53 percent of all land (nytimes.com; June 18, 2019). The Times used public zoning data assembled by UrbanFootprint to tabulate land use percentages and create similar maps for 10 comparative cities.
Zoning codes greatly differ by city. However, in each of the study cities The Times and UrbanFootprint identified ordinances dedicated single-family homes and rowhouses more typical in older East coast cities like New York and place them into a second group encompassing other housing types. The earliest zoning supporters did not consider rowhouses the same as single-family home.
Many cities allow mixed-use developments in non-residential areas--i.e. apartments built over stores. The following maps illustrate land exclusively designated for residential use.
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| Washington D.C. 36% of residential land is designated for single-family homes nytimes.com |
Maps, like the one on the left, reflect the idea that "denser housing can be a nuisance to single-family neighborhoods just as a factory would be" (Ibid). This antiquated notion dates back to the 1926 Supreme Court decision, Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. (decided Nov. 22, 1926), which upheld zoning ordinances.
The high court wrote,
...one apartment house is followed by others, interfering by their height and bulk with the free circulation of air and monopolizing the rays of the sun which otherwise would fall upon smaller homes, and bringing, as their necessary accompaniments the disturbing noises incident to increased traffic and businesses,... (supreme.justia.com; Nov. 22, 1926; date accessed July 8, 2019)
Today, the same density that the high court derided is considered by environmentalists as the remedy to sprawling development grids that create gridlock, leading to higher auto emissions. Planners see density as a necessary condition that supports public transportation and economists consider it as the best way to make expensive cities more affordable.
California state Senator Scott Wiener, the author of SB50, recently spoke to the Brookings Institute in Washington D.C. He described single-family zoning as,
...everything else is banned. Apartment buildings--banned. Senior housing--banned. Low-income housing, which is only multi-unit--banned. Student housing--banned (nytimes.com; June 18, 2019)
Cities routinely "upzone" specific neighborhoods or lots to create more housing options. Minneapolis' unique approach upzoned every single-family neighborhood in one sweep. Officials posited that it was the fairest solution. Heather Worthington, the director of long-range planning, told the The New York Times,
If we were going to pick and choose, the fight I would been even bloodier. (Ibid).
Tomorrow, we will take a look at a few more cities and look at the impact of single-family zoning ordinances.
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