What if scrapping one flawed policy could bring US cities closer to addressing debilitating housing shortages, stunted growth and innovation, persistent racial and economic segregation, and car-dependent development? It’s time for America to move beyond zoning, argues city planner M. Nolan Gray in Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. With lively explanations and stories, Gray shows why zoning abolition is a necessary—if not sufficient—condition for building more affordable, vibrant, equitable, and sustainable cities. The arbitrary lines of zoning maps across the country have come to dictate where Americans may live and work, forcing cities into a pattern of growth that is segregated and sprawling. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Reform is in the air, with cities and states across the country critically reevaluating zoning. In cities as diverse as Minneapolis, Fayetteville, and Hartford, the key pillars of zoning are under fire, with apartment bans being scrapped, minimum lot sizes dropping, and off-street parking requirements disappearing altogether. Some American cities—including Houston, America’s fourth-largest city—already make land-use planning work without zoning. In Arbitrary Lines, Gray lays the groundwork for this ambitious cause by clearing up common confusions and myths about how American cities regulate growth and examining the major contemporary critiques of zoning. Gray sets out some of the efforts currently underway to reform zoning and charts how land-use regulation might work in the post-zoning American city. Despite mounting interest, no single book has pulled these threads together for a popular audience. In Arbitrary Lines, Gray fills this gap by showing how zoning has failed to address even our most basic concerns about urban growth over the past century, and how we can think about a new way of planning a more affordable, prosperous, equitable, and sustainable American city.
M. Nolan Gray is a professional city planner and an expert in urban land-use regulation. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Gray previously worked on the front lines of zoning as a planner in New York City. He now serves as an Affiliated Scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he advises state and local policymakers on land-use policy. Gray is a contributor to Market Urbanism and a widely published author, with work appearing in outlets such as The Atlantic, Bloomberg Citylab, and The Guardian. He lives in Los Angeles, California and is originally from Lexington, Kentucky.
Table of Contents
IntroductionPart IChapter 1. Where Zoning Comes From Land Use Before Zoning What Changed? 1916 The Federal Push Chapter 2. How Zoning Works How Zoning Is Born Decoding the City Everything in Its Right Place Don’t Be Dense How Zoning Changes Patching Up Zoning? Part IIChapter 3. Planning an Affordability Crisis Zoned Out Mandating Mansions Housing Delayed Is Housing Denied Why Did This Happen? Chapter 4. The Wealth We Lost How Cities Make Us Rich Zoning for Stagnation How Much Poorer Are We? Chapter 5. Apartheid by Another Name Zoning for Segregation All Are Welcome, If You Can Afford It The Bitter Fruits of Segregation Chapter 6. Sprawl by Design Zoning for Sprawl Assume a Car Fleeing Sustainability Part IIIChapter 7. Toward a Less Bad Zoning The Low-Hanging Fruit of Local Reform Taming Local Control Is There a Role for the Federal Government? Turning Japanese Chapter 8. The Case for Abolishing Zoning Why Reform Isn’t Enough Steelmanning Zoning Meanwhile, Back in the Real World Chapter 9. The Great Unzoned City The Compromise That Saved Houston How Cities Organize Themselves Land-Use Regulation after Zoning How to Abolish Zoning in Two Easy Steps Chapter 10. Planning After Zoning It’s the Externalities, Stupid! Desegregating the Post-Zoning City Reviving the Plan Conclusion Appendix: What Zoning Isn’t Zoning Isn’t the Market Zoning Isn’t the Only Kind of Land-Use Regulation Zoning Isn’t Environmental Regulation Zoning Isn’t Planning Acknowledgments Notes Recommended Reading Index About the Author
