Zoning Matters How Land-Use Policies Shape Our Lives

Human Health & the Environment

Urban Institute, 06 12, 2019

Video (2:28)

Description

Zoning is a way for communities to separate land by use or form. But from the start, zoning has separated more than just land uses. It has also separated people. As a result, we pay the cost in public health, racial and economic injustices, higher housing costs, and more. Learn more at http://www.urban.org/zoning

Transcript

0:00 · ♪♪♪ Zoning is a way for communities to separate land by use or form.

0:07 · For example, an area could be dedicated to commercial or industrial use, or there could be a restriction on how many housing units can be built.

0:16 · Zoning shapes the places where we live, but it also shapes our lives.

0:20 · Local zoning regulations determine where we can find housing, schools, and parks, and who gets to use them.

0:26 · Policymakers initially created zoning codes to protect public health- for example, to stop residents from getting sick from living too close to factories.

0:35 · But from the start, zoning has separated more than just land uses.

0:39 · It has also separated people.

0:41 · In the early 20th Century, many communities explicitly used zoning ordinances to racially segregate neighborhoods— effectively declaring that different skin colors were as incompatible as a family’s home and a smokestack.

0:54 · By the late 20th century, civil rights legislation outlawed overt housing discrimination.

1:00 · But those explicit racial barriers were quickly replaced by subtler methods.

1:04 · Even today, exclusionary zoning policies that restrict lower-cost or higher-density housing limit racial and economic diversity and raise housing costs.

1:14 · By driving up housing costs, restrictive zoning can exclude people from equal access to public resources, like schools and parks, and leave lower-income workers unable to afford housing close to available jobs.

1:27 · When regions are more economically and racially segregated, everyone loses.

1:32 · Local economies see slower growth and residents of all races are less upwardly mobile.

1:38 · And finally, despite being created to protect public health, zoning often pushes multifamily buildings closer to highways and areas with higher concentrations of air pollutants.

1:48 · As a result, low-income people and people of color are more likely to live in places that could make them sick.

1:55 · It doesn’t have to be this way.

1:57 · When done thoughtfully, zoning can connect people and places, not divide us.

2:02 · Communities across the US are beginning to reexamine the role of zoning and change their restrictive zoning rules— opening neighborhoods to multifamily housing, walkable densities, and more.

2:14 · For more information and resources, and to find out what other communities are doing to improve their zoning policies, go to urban.org/zoning.