Exclusionary Zoning

Tacoma Plan Would Eliminate Single-Family Zoning in Favor of 'Missing Middle' Housing
If implemented, Home in Tacoma would create new housing categories to encourage more multi-family buildings.

Oakland Wants to Make Space for Fourplexes
The city of Oakland in the East Bay Area is a hotbed of planning and development issues, most notably gentrification and the displacement of communities of color. Now the city is considering a drastic change to its zoning code.

The Pitfalls of the 15-Minute City
The concept, touted as "hyper-local," can fail to take into account local conditions and historical inequities in American cities.

Upzoning Catches on in California
Eliminating single-family zoning and other exclusionary ordinances could have major impacts on housing in some of the country's most unaffordable cities.

Zoning Reform Skepticism
Ending single-family zoning, as more cities around the United States have begun to do, is too extreme a response to contemporary planning challenges, according to a recent opinion piece published by the East Bay Times.

History (Un)made: Berkeley City Council Votes to Eliminate Single-Family Zoning
The city that invented single-family zoning in 1916, for discriminatory purposes, will completely remove that exclusionary legacy from its zoning code.

Opinion: Biden's Plan to Eliminate Exclusionary Zoning Is 'Imprudent'
A counterintuitive argument contends that from a housing justice perspective, the Biden administration's attack on exclusionary zoning is imprudent.

Philadelphia City Council Pushing for More Control Over Zoning Variances
A cause abandoned by the Philadelphia City in 2019 is on the table again.

What Is Exclusionary Zoning?
Criticized as a key factor in perpetuating housing inequality in the United States, exclusionary zoning refers to a range of policies that, explicitly or implicitly, seek to prevent people of certain races, ethnicities, or income levels from buying homes in specific neighborhoods.

The Connecticut Zoning Atlas Illustrates a Proclivity for Single-Family Zoning
A new online interactive mapping tool illustrates just how much developable land is devoted to one for of residential housing in the state of Connecticut.

What is Affordable Housing?
The term affordable housing refers to housing units that cost less than a predetermined percentage of household incomes. Planners use affordable housing as a general term to describe housing that doesn't put an excessive financial burden on its occupants.

'Housing Choice' Approved in Massachusetts
The Housing Choice initiative, one of the country's most sweeping planning and development reforms to date, was included in a large economic development package approved by the Massachusetts Legislature earlier this week.

Statewide Zoning Changes Adopted in Oregon to Limit Parking, Add Missing Middle
The state of Oregon made planning history in 2019 by adopting House Bill 2001, paving the way for the state to preempt local exclusionary zoning laws. Now, over a year later, the state land use board has decided how to implement that goal.

Local Zoning Controversy Raises Bigger Questions About Race and Discrimination
A zoning application in the city of Woodbridge, Connecticut has interests on both sides of the issue lawyering up, and the reverberations from the controversy reach all the way to the state capital.

Cleveland Has Yet to Recover From the Last Recession
Decades of racist policy and a lack of critical resources have left Cleveland in a perpetual state of economic fragility. The city can't afford another recession.

Unlocking the Potential of Transit Adjacent Land for Housing Affordability
A case study from the Boston region shows the power of allowing moderate density on transit adjacent residential parcels currently available only to single-family detached homes.

Downzoning for Society Hill Back on After the Philadelphia City Council Overrides Mayoral Veto
One of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Philadelphia is increasing parking requirements and limiting building heights at all costs.

Mayoral Veto Kills Controversial Philadelphia Downzoning
The mayor, planning staff, and the Philadelphia Planning Commission agree. The Philadelphia City Council and residents of the wealthy neighborhood of Society Hill, not so much.

Rezoning Every Residential Neighborhood in Cambridge for Affordable Apartment Buildings
Cambridge, Massachusetts has opened all residential neighborhoods to the development of apartments buildings with 100 percent affordable units. It might be the most "sweeping attack on elitist and racist single family zoning" in the country.

On the Ballot in Alameda: The End of Single-Family Zoning
Voters in Alameda, a city of nearly 80,000 people on an island in the East San Francisco Bay Area, will vote to end a prohibition on multi-family housing that has been in place since 1973.
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