Minimum lot size requirements are a common tool used by cities across the United States to ensure that homes are not built on parcels that are deemed aesthetically “too small” for housing. Available evidence suggests that these requirements also drive…
Why is Housing Unaffordable? The Great Migration’s Effect on Exclusionary Zoning
Published: 2020 | Alexander Sahn Abstract High housing prices drive inequality, reduce growth, and increase racial segregation. Scholars have identified laws restricting the use of land, particularly for dense multi-family housing, as a primary cause of housing unaffordability. What explains…
Planning for the Future
Published: 2020 | Anthony Breach | Centre for Cities
Housing Underproduction in California – Up For Growth
Published: 2019 | Up for Growth Abstract However, this recent imbalance continues a much longer trend in California, where restrictive local development and land-use policies have curtailed housing production for decades. These policies, enacted by local jurisdictions to maintain walkable,…
The Geography of Inequality: How Land Use Regulation Produces Segregation
Published: 2020 | Jessica Trounstine | American Political Science Review Abstract Public goods in the United States are largely funded and delivered at the local level. Local public goods are valuable, but their production requires overcoming several collective action problems…
Sustainable Communities or the Next Urban Renewal?
Published: 2020 | Moira O’Neill, Giulia Gualco-Nelson, Eric Biber | Ecology Law Quarterly Abstract California has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to address climate change. But in California, the sector that produces the largest share of greenhouse gas…
It’s Time to End Single-Family Zoning
Published: 2020 | Paavo Monkkonen, Michael Lens, and Michael Manville | Journal of the American Planning Association Abstract Local planning in the United States is unique in the amount of land it reserves for detached single-family homes. This privileging of…
Built-Out-Cities? How California Cities Restrict Housing Production Through Prohibition and Process
Published: 2020 | Paavo Monkkonen, Michael Lens, and Michael Manville | Terner Center for Housing Innovation Abstract Given high rents and prices in California, housing production is at a relative historic low. Scholarship has connected restrictive land use regulations to…
Affordable housing in Los Angeles
Published: 2019 | Jonathan Woetzel, Shannon Peloquin, Steve Kling, Tim Ward, and Sucheta Arora | McKinsey Global Institute Abstract This does not have to involve placing high-rises on every open space. Higher density is a given, but much of the…
Inclusionary Zoning: What Does the Research Tell Us about the Effectiveness of Local Action?
Published: 2019 | Kriti Ramakrishnan, Mark Treskon, and Solomon Greene | Urban League Abstract As real wages stagnate, racial disparities grow, and housing prices soar in cities across the US, local governments are increasingly adopting laws and regulations that aim…