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Land Use Regulation and Residential Segregation: Does Zoning Matter?
Abstract
Critics of zoning have attributed to it much of the responsibility for the persistent and severe patterns of racial and economic segregation that characterize urban America. Yet, little empirical evidence has been produced to demonstrate the degree to which observed patterns of residential segregation are attributable to zoning. This article explores that question by comparing patterns of residential segregation in Houston, the nation's only unzoned large city, and Dallas, a similar zoned city. Houston's unique system of “nonzoning” is described. The index of dissimilarity is used to measure segregation by race, tenure, and housing type, and a variation of the index is developed to measure segregation by income. No significant differences in residential segregation are evident between the two cities. These results suggest that, absent zoning, private voluntary institutions produce nearly identical patterns of residential segregation.
... Indeed, we argue that partially because of past exclusionary policies and years of successfully keeping out Blacks, this all-White town was not prepared for the influx of Latino newcomers. Municipal codes that often serve to segregate groups by race/ethnicity and income (Berry 2001) were not strictly enforced in Riverbend. Low-cost housing and other structural features of the housing supply also allowed Mexican migrants to rent or buy mobile homes or site-built homes in every neighborhood. ...
... Scholars argue that municipal zoning ordinances were and are implicitly tools of racial/ethnic segregation (Burns 1994;Silver 1997;Pader 2002). Though racially-based codes are illegal and unconstitutional since 1917 (Berry 2001), housing codes that appear to be racially neutral such as the occupancy standard of no more than two people per bedroom inscribe "ethnicity and family relations on the land" (Pader 1993;Pader 2002;Ahrentzen 2003). 35 Like other communities, Riverbend had pre-existing planning and zoning regulatory mechanisms. ...
... 34 Median housing values for non-Hispanic White households in Riverbend are slightly lower, about $43,000 in 2000. 35 Other scholars are more skeptical (e.g., Berry 2001). 36 Local building permit records show that the first permits, required to do any kind of building including home additions, were first issued to Latinos in 1997. ...
... Many scholars who write about zoning from a theoretical angle (Fischel, 1985;Ellickson, 1973;Siegan, 1972;Berry, 2001;Peiser, 1981) work on the interface between law and economics. In more general terms, law and economics, like neo-classical economics, can be seen as a rational choice theory . ...
... Although academics in general in zoning discussions usually do not take as emotional a stance as the frontrunners of the discussion in Houston, they too share the belief that zoning or a lack thereof can determine our environment in a big way. Many scholars, both advocates, opponents and the ones that position themselves somewhere in between (Fischel, 1985;Ellickson, 1973;Siegan, 1972;Berry, 2001;Peiser, 1981), work on the interface between law and economics, which allows them to analyse institutional arrangements and their effects in detail from both a legal and an economic angle. The way both markets and zoning are sometimes approached is relatively essentialist and deterministic. ...
... Other more moderate researchers in this field share the same ontological position. Berry (2001), for instance, wants to test the hypothesis that zoning leads to social segregation. He compares Dallas to Houston, two cities with a comparable size, but one with and one without zoning. ...
The intent of this article is to understand why Houstonians reject zoning while simultaneously adopting a collection of mechanisms that serve zoning-type functions. The answer is found in discursive-institutionalist approaches that emphasize the symbolic meaning (besides the instrumental value) that people give to regulatory tools. Zoning as a label is generally associated with an interference with individual liberty. Apparently, the other interventionist instruments do not carry the same negative value, which makes it possible to implement them without much opposition. Discourses shape institutions, like planning regulations, and we need to unravel and to understand these processes in order to increase the performance of planning.
... Specifically, we examine whether the past practices to keep out blacks may help explain, among other factors, why this all-white town did not enforce institutional tools that would have likely increased the residential segregation of the Latino population arriving after 1990. For example, the municipal codes often used to segregate groups by race and ethnicity and by income (Berry 2001) were put on the books in Riverbend in the 1980s, but were not enforced or strengthened until recently. Factors noted in previous research are also relevant, including earlier patterns of Hispanic-white residential segregation. ...
... A lack of preexisting and enforced land-use and zoning ordinances to regulate residence may be another factor in the present spatial distributions of Latinos and whites in Riverbend. Racially based zoning was determined to be unconstitutional in 1917 (Berry 2001). Since that time, however, municipal zoning ordinances have maintained or reflected desired social hierarchies that serve racial and ethnic segregation without employing racially explicit language (Berry 2001;Meyer 2000;Pader 2002;Sandercock andKliger 1998a, 1998b;Silver 1997). ...
... Racially based zoning was determined to be unconstitutional in 1917 (Berry 2001). Since that time, however, municipal zoning ordinances have maintained or reflected desired social hierarchies that serve racial and ethnic segregation without employing racially explicit language (Berry 2001;Meyer 2000;Pader 2002;Sandercock andKliger 1998a, 1998b;Silver 1997). Likewise, though occupancy standards that limit bedroom occupancy to two people or less may be considered neutral, they inscribe ''ethnicity and family relations on the land'' (Pader 2002) by enforcing culturally based definitions of overcrowding that often conflict with the number of members in immigrant households (Miraftab 2000). ...
For more than a century, communities across the United States legally employed strategies to create and maintain racial divides. One particularly widespread and effective practice was that of "sundown towns, " which signaled to African Americans and others that they were not welcome within the city limits after dark. Though nearly 1, 000 small towns, larger communities, and suburbs across the country may have engaged in these practices, until recently there has been little scholarship on the topic. Drawing from qualitative and quantitative sources, this article presents a case study of a midwestern rural community with a sundown history. Since 1990 large numbers of Mexican migrants have arrived there to work at the local meat-processing plant, earning the town the nickname "Litde Mexico." The study identifies a substantial decline in Hispanic-white residential segregation in the community between 1990 and 2000. We consider possible explanations for the increased spatial integration of Latino and white residents, including local housing characteristics and the weak enforcement of preexisting housing policies. We also describe the racialized history of this former sundown town and whether, paradoxically, its history of excluding nonwhites may have played a role in the spatial configurations of Latinos and non-Hispanic whites in 2000. Scholars investigating the contemporary processes of Latino population growth in "new" destinations, both in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, may want to explore the importance of sociohistorical considerations, particularly localities' racialized historical contexts before the arrival of Mexican and other Latino immigrants.
... This started in 1965 when Texan legislature was passed to allow the councils to get involved in the enforcement of residential restrictive covenants entered into privately. 76 In 2002, the Houston chapter of the Amencan Institute of Architects launched an ambitious plan to help Houston with its housing policy and the great challenges / problems it faces until 2025 Together with the Houston City Council, the business community, non-profit communitybased organizations and others, they appointed a steering committee to lead that process (see www housmghouston org) 77 To assess the effects of zoning on vanous issues, Houston has been compared several times (Siegan 1972, Reiser 1981, Berry 2001) tb Dallas, a zoned (at least the suburban parts), but in other respects comparable city ...
... 81 In the literature restnctive covenants, deed restnctions and deed covenants are used interchangeably. 82 This section draws to some extent on Berry (2001). sometimes developers take the initiative to install homeowner associations to do this. ...
... What makes Houston special is that they are not used in conjunction with zoning and that state legislation has been passed that allows the city to enforce the private agreements. After the rejection of zoning in the 1962 referendum there was pressure to enhance the power of the local government in another way (Berry, 2001). As deed restrictions were the main instrument for land use regulation, it was found appropriate that the city got more influence in enforcing the covenants. ...
User rights regimes as particular governance structuresA transaction-cost analysis of the development process: a methodologyThe empirical researchReferences
... Although academics in general in zoning discussions usually do not take as emotional a stance as the frontrunners of the discussion in Houston, they too share the belief that zoning or a lack thereof can determine our environment in a big way. Many scholars, both advocates, opponents and the ones that position themselves somewhere in between (Fischel, 1985;Ellickson, 1973;Siegan, 1972;Berry, 2001;Peiser, 1981), work on the interface between law and economics, which allows them to analyse institutional arrangements and their effects in detail from both a legal and an economic angle. The way both markets and zoning are sometimes approached is relatively essentialist and deterministic. ...
... Other more moderate researchers in this field share the same ontological position. Berry (2001), for instance, wants to test the hypothesis that zoning leads to social segregation. He compares Dallas to Houston, two cities with a comparable size, but one with and one without zoning. ...
... The restrictions are registered in the real property records of the county of Harris and run with the land in order to restrict future owners accordingly. It is estimated (Feagin, 1988;Berry, 2001) that 10,000 deed restrictions are recorded and registered with the county of which two-thirds are for residences. 8 Houston has many neighbourhoods that organize themselves around those deed restrictions. ...
Planning in the US: Social Conflict Over Property RightsHouston: no Zoning, but not UnregulatedHouston City Planning in Practice: MontebelloTransaction-Cost Analysis of MontebelloReferences
... Soon after, in 1965, municipal enforcement of deed restrictions began, which served de facto zoning purposes such as reduction of negative externalities associated with nuisance land uses in residential areas (Bullard, 1987;Kaplan, 1980). Despite Houston's private means of land use regulation through deed restrictions, the city's land use patterns and physical structure are overall quite similar to United States cities with zoning in place (Berry, 2001;Qian, 2010). Further, incompatible land uses have persisted in Houston's aging lowerincome and minority neighborhoods in patterns reminiscent of our observations of Phoenix. ...
... The typical 20-30-year lifespans of deed restrictions, paired with limited means of renewal due to high residential turnover and absentee landlordism, have perpetuated this over time. Around 50%-60% of Houston's deed restrictions were found to be valid in 1990, dwindling in 2007 to 30%--the remainder of which fell in minority communities subject to further industrial encroachment (Berry, 2001;Bullard, 1987;Qian, 2010). Thus, the legal limitations of these deed restrictions may have exacerbated expansion of nuisance land uses into both white and minority neighborhoods, unlike the Phoenix experience that largely has focused light industrial and commercial expansion in former minority, low-income neighborhoods. ...
Little attention has been paid to the role of early land use institutions in development patterns, the creation of disamenity zones of environmental injustice, and the promotion of space-consuming suburban development. This study uses historic Sanborn Fire Insurance maps and spatial analytic techniques to expose zoning's tendency to spread disamenities and disperse incompatible land uses in early Phoenix. While on paper Euclidean zoning's stratification of land uses in Phoenix promotes progressive ideals for reduction of blight and improvement of city health, analysis at a finer scale using Sanborn maps reveals that zoning decisions in Phoenix tended to promote the expansion of fragmented land uses, especially disamenity zones that targeted poor minority neighborhoods. Zoning encouraged the expansion of industry while attracting residents to newly developed suburbs with guaranteed protection from blight.
... Increasing neighborhood inequality fuels population sorting in which the social capital, resources and positive economic spillovers of higher-income households become segregated within smaller pockets of metropolitan regions, abandoning other quadrants to poorer, often racial-minority concentrated populations (Hardman and Ioannides 2004;Watson 2009). This urban phenomenon of income and racial stratification has come to define the American urban landscape (Berry 2001;Carruthers, Boarnet and McLaughlin 2007;Downs 2003). As a result, researchers have devoted decades to studying the dimensions of citizens "voting with their feet" and its effect on human behavior, capacity for innovation, and willingness of government and business actors to coordinate (Anthony 2004;Bickers, Salucci and Stein 2006;Carr and Tavares 2014;Dierwechter 2014;Downs 1999;Epple and Zelenitz 1981;Fischel 2006;Howell-Moroney 2008;Ostrom, Tiebout and Warren 1961;Peterson 1981;Tiebout 1956). ...
... Social Inclusion Policy Tools: Although equity has been considered one of the "three E's" of sustainability, the ramifications of urban sustainability for the urban disadvantaged has received little attention from the broader research community (Berry 2001;Curley 2010;Dierwechter 2014;Opp and Saunders 2013). While sustainability proponents cite the need for equity to be considered along side other efficiency or environmental concerns, it is often consiered only in certain contexts or subject to tradeoffs (Ringquist 2011). ...
How might social inequality influence local government decisions to adopt green building incentives or mandates? Extant research has considered the influence that political homophily, environmental activism, and pressure groups play in the spread of sustainability policies. But to what extent do concerns over environmental justice motivate local government adoption of green building, development, and remodeling programs? This study begins to disentangle these questions by asking: do cities within regions with higher levels of social inequality adopt green building policies less frequently than those in areas of lower inequality? Using national survey data, we find measures of wealth and “reformed” government positively influence the use of green-building tools, while regional income inequality dampens these effects.
... For instance, South and Crowder (1998) demonstrate that minorities have significantly more housing choice, availability and opportunity in places where there are new housing markets such as the Sunbelt as opposed to more entrenched parts of the Northeast. Yet, despite the prospect of more opportunity, minority housing prospects in general are still limited because of more familiar housing access difficulties such as credit problems, affordability, or a continued "lack of choice" due to more subtle and systematic forms of discrimination and segregation (Aalbers 2003;Ards and Myers 2001;Berry 2001;Yinger 1998). Thus decreases in segregation while perhaps a contributing factor cannot account for this phenomenon alone. ...
... Since their work focused on metropolitan level data, my analysis drilled down to the census tract level to determine whether some micro-integration occurs at the neighborhood level (or at least the census tract level) or does the prevailing pattern of gated communities of all types still signal segregation (Maly 2005). Unfortunately, as in most segregation studies, it is often difficult to interpret whether any increased integration is due to new housing markets dynamics or general rental market dynamics that are based on all the inherent segregative processes underlying American multifamily zoning (Berry 2001). 39 ...
The current literature on gated communities characterizes residents as fearful, wealthy, white homeowners. Thus, researchers using recent American Housing Survey (AHS) data were surprised to find that many residents of gated communities live in apartments and that residents of walled or fenced communities were actually more likely to be renters than owners.
This article uses the AHS to explore the characteristics of residents of rental gated communities (the other half). Factors leading to the growth of gated communities in general and gated apartments in particular are considered. Owned and rental gated communities are compared as a first step in defining the differences between these kinds of tenure, and existing research on subsidized gated housing is updated using descriptive and trend data. The housing opportunities and restraints that rental gated communities create for minorities are analyzed, and policy implications for the growth of rental gated communities are discussed.
... One can argue, as it is often the case, that cities make effectively exclusionary decisions for reasons having nothing to do with race: communities may restrict residential development density in order to prevent increases in traffic, for example. This ability to attribute exclusionary outcomes to race-neutral practices is at the root of historical failures to successfully challenge these activities in court (Berry, 2001;Rothwell, 2011). ...
... As Connor (2014) explained in his discussion of municipal fragmentation, suburbanites can defend segregation as consumers, homeowners, and taxpayers rationally guarding their property values and quality of life. In its 1977 review of effectively exclusionary zoning practices in Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation, the US Supreme Court established that an apparently discriminatory impact could not constitute a violation of the equal protection clause because the plaintiffs had failed to also demonstrate that Arlington Heights possessed discriminatory intentions (Berry, 2001). The Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Township of Mt. ...
This paper investigates the distribution of and motivations for zoning decisions that decreased allowed residential density or prevented denser residential development in urbanized portions of Durham, North Carolina, from 1945 through 2014. It presents quantitative evidence that prior to 1985, racial demographics offer a better explanation for the distribution of these potentially exclusionary decisions than median incomes or homeownership rates. This finding is substantiated by qualitative evidence from plans, records of public hearings, and other primary materials pertinent to zoning decisions affecting residential land use. The paper secondly presents evidence that since 1985, the city has made residential zoning decisions that have collectively entailed less dissimilar treatment of areas of different racial characteristics, and suggests reasons for this shift based on further research of primary materials. These findings inform us of the role of racial bias in zoning beyond the era of explicit racial zoning in the early 20th-century.
... Houston, for example, has never been zoned. However, compared with the zoned city of Dallas, Houston is similar in its segregation of home value, lot sizes, multi-family housing, and race/ ethnicity, 22 and has also disproportionately burdened non-White families with pollution. The work of one institution, local government, was shifted to private industry, but the effect of racial inequity remains. ...
... The work of one institution, local government, was shifted to private industry, but the effect of racial inequity remains. 18,22 Institutional cooperation also shows in the regulation of marijuana possession and distribution. Racialized criminalization of marijuana use was a way to control immigration from Mexico as early as the 1930s. ...
Why do racial inequalities endure despite numerous attempts to expand civil rights in certain sectors? A major reason for this endurance is due to lack of attention to structural racism. Although structural and institutional racism are often conflated, they are not the same. Herein, we provide an analogy of a “bucky ball” (Buckminsterfullerene) to distinguish the two concepts. Structural racism is a system of interconnected institutions that operate with a set of racialized rules that maintain White supremacy. These connections and rules allow racism to reinvent itself into new forms and persist, despite civil rights interventions directed at specific institutions. To illustrate these ideas, we provide examples from the fields of environmental justice, criminal justice, and medicine. Racial inequities in power and health will persist until we redirect our gaze away from specific institutions (and specific individuals), and instead focus on the resilient connections among institutions and their racialized rules.Ethn Dis. 2021;31(Suppl 1):293-300; doi:10.18865/ed.31.S1.293
... Some researchers have suggested that fast growth may contribute to more housing access for minorities. For instance, South and Crowder (1998) housing access difficulties such as credit problems, affordability, or a continued "lack of choice" due to more subtle and systematic forms of discrimination and segregation (Aalbers 2003;Ards and Myers 2001;Berry 2001;Yinger 1998). Thus decreases in segregation while perhaps a contributing factor cannot account for this phenomenon alone. ...
... Although not a completely new argument,Berry (2001) offers a model that demonstrates that the structure of zoning regulations that separate homeowners from renters effectively results in the same outcome as if racial and income zoning restrictions were in place. ...
This study looks at characteristics of rental gated communities in the United States from a national
perspective and based on a case study of four Southwestern Counties, Riverside County and San
Bernardino County in California, Maricopa County in Arizona, and Clark County, Nevada. Tenure
differences between owned and rental gated communities are compared. The study also debates
who actually benefits from rental gated communities and what that effect that has upon the
community. This analysis is done by assessing whether minorities experience higher housing
opportunities in rental gated communities newer, fast growing areas as the study area. Descriptive
statistics of rental gated community characteristics are presented and neighborhood diversity indices
are analyzed. The study finds that rental gated communities are much like their owned gated
community counterparts and that new housing markets do not present better housing opportunities
(at the neighborhood level)for minorities, particularly those neighborhoods with more rental gated
properties present. Policy implications are discussed.
https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/27915
... More importantly perhaps, the viability of the institutional approach is also acknowledged by the industry. RICS, for instance, has recently published a number of books using institutionalism in property research (see for instance Ball, 2006;Ball et al., 1998;Seabrooke & Hebe, 2004). This shows that institutionalism as a research methodology has a value in property studies. ...
... (Fleck, 2000). (Berry, 2001). , 2003). ...
Housing accounts for more than 80% of the built environment in most countries, and affects almost every facet of family life, human development and crime rate. The advent of the Internet and Telecommuting will continue to change housing needs and development patterns. The debate about affordable housing in the US has recently taken on more relevance due to rapidly rising rents, housing shortages, changes in demographics and inadequate financing. This article analyzes the housing market in the NY Metro Area, to illustrate the legal, economic, policy/political and strategy dimensions of the housing problem. The New York Metropolitan Area housing market has evolved into a mini-industry due to very rare and unique circumstances. The federal government, state governments, local governments, and private companies have reacted very differently to changes in this failed mini-industry, and this has yielded rather unfortunate results - inadequate housing, over-crowding, inflated rents and property prices, government payments for emergency housing and general uncertainty. This mini-industry needs to be restructured. This paper analyses economic, legal and public policy issues in this mini-industry. The article then explains various possible remedies to the affordable housing problem, and new model of competition and industrial structure and new theories of industrial change.
... Other examples of public policies that can generate RS are: zoning and public housing. As Berry (2001) indicates zoning regulations most commonly used as exclusionary devices include bans on multifamily housing and a variety of minimum building standards such as lot size and width, building size, density, etc. Albeit restrictions like these do not explicitly exclude specific people or groups of people, they effectively establish minimum limits on the cost of housing, which can generate RS. Besides, given the correlation amongst race and income, RS based on income would generate racial segregation. ...
This essay presents a literature review about residential segregation. Given the vast extension of it, the focus has been on those works that we have considered either more influential or with the potential to define the new trends of this kind of research. We have classified the literature into the following subjects: definitions, measures, causes and consequences. Our main conclusions are that the measurement and description of segregation must be based upon techniques that incorporate spatial factors; it is crucial to use individuals interactions and social dynamics models in order to understand the segregation causes and consequences; it is necessary to consider general equilibrium models, with endogenous location decisions and the interaction of relevant markets to shed light on the segregation consequences upon the society as a whole and to evaluate any policy designed to deal with it. JELCodes: R, R14, R31, R34 y R38.
... For example, zoning was used in the South to segregate the races within communities and between them as part of a broader set of Jim Crow laws. 13 Districts were zoned white single family or colored single family. These lines not only determined where people could live, but also affected the type and style of single-family homes. ...
The United States is a suburban nation with a majority of Americans living and working in this landscape. But the suburb is more than a physical location; it is also a social production. Built upon a middle class, white, nuclear family ideal, the suburb is now diversifying demographically and economically, yet zoning ordinances and the built environment continue to reflect this outdated ideal. Today's suburb is not your mother's suburb. We argue that these demographic changes create both a point of rupture that challenges traditional land use regulations and actual uses of space, and an opening for communities to embrace and plan for new residents. In order to respond to the needs of a diversifying suburban population, communities need to challenge the underlying assumptions of traditional zoning ordinances - the separation of uses and preference for single-family housing. We present an agenda for the future that includes planning responses that rethink the zoning hierarchy, promote new forms of densification, move beyond restrictive family definitions, and experiment with new forms of service delivery.
... The essence of this practice, known as "rezoning," "spot-zoning" (Buitelaar and Sorel, 2010), and, on occasion, "up-zoning" or "down-zoning" (Hills and Schleicher, 2011), is the introduction of local change to the overall planning directives pertaining to a single element or a limited, defined area. In practical terms, then, the current work of the planning system boils down to the ongoing local revision of comprehensive plans (Alfasi, 2006;Berry, 2001;Buitelaar et al., 2011;Buitelaar and Sorel, 2010;Charney, 2013;Waldner, 2009). ...
Time is the main axis for understanding the functional, economic, and social aspects of self-organized redevelopment. When such processes are intensive and are conducted contemporaneously by large numbers of urban agents on different spatial and temporal scales and as a result of different motivations, urban planning is fragmented into multiple simultaneous and unexpected projects. The post-zoning era in urban planning stemmed from a recognition of this kind of complexity of urban dynamics and the need for a flexible planning system. Web-based geographic information systems (GIS) and planning support systems (PSS) are employed widely as digital tools to support planning practices. Still, the solutions tend to be isolated implementations that do not achieve sophisticated management of the complex temporal-spatial urban dynamics of self-organization. To this end, the article presents a useful set of multidimensional (2D, 3D, and 4D) planning tools that can be implemented by municipal planning departments to improve planning practices with relative ease. This toolbox facilitates the real-time updating of changes to individual buildings and allows all parties to see where delays are occurring, where they are impacting one another, and where environments of accelerated development are evolving in nearby urban plots. Identifying redevelopment clusters enables the formulation of an urban time-based planning policy. Using a spatial-temporal toolbox for planning, we argue, can facilitate recognition of the potential of self-organization as the leading form of contemporary urban planning.
... Moreover, such a focus on public zoning regulations has limited application in Texas, where much of the land-use practice is governed at least as much by private regulations as public. Scholarship on Houston, a city where landuse is controlled only by private zoning regulations, has shown how there are virtually identical patterns of land-use and, consequently, racial and class segregation as there are in Dallas, which is governed by public zoning ordinances (Berry 2001). In Texas, private land-use controls have a significant and lasting effect on residential and commercial development; ...
... Alguns estudos defendem que escolhas individuais segregam o espaço urbano, independentemente da presença de áreas fiscais ou políticas explícitas de habitação (Berry, 2001). Contudo, a literatura revela que áreas fiscais constituídas por imóveis de classes econômicas mais abastadas afastam escolhas individuais, uma vez que o valor dos imóveis dessas áreas depende da manutenção de sua morfologia (Leven, 1976). ...
Esta pesquisa se insere no contexto da desigualdade urbana, que se revela, em parte, pela concentração da oferta de bens-serviços públicos em áreas mais favorecidas em detrimento de áreas menos favorecidas. Além de trazer evidências empíricas que confirmam esse entendimento, exploram-se alternativas para aumentar a progressividade dos tributos. Busca-se, assim, atribuir um imposto maior àqueles que se beneficiam mais da valorização imobiliária e do bem-estar produzido por tais bens e serviços. Logo, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi criar um mecanismo para extrair recursos de áreas mais favorecidas e investi-los, na forma de bens-serviços públicos, em áreas menos favorecidas. Para tanto, selecionaram-se variáveis relacionadas aos bens-serviços públicos (agrupamento hierárquico) e criou-se uma Variável de Síntese Bens-Serviços Públicos (VS-BSP) (análise de componentes principais). Os resultados revelaram que áreas menos favorecidas possuíam 2,54 e 2,52 vezes menos VS-BSP e renda, respectivamente. Com a nova alíquota do IPTU, que considera a progressividade tributária e a proporção da VS-BSP nos domicílios, pode-se atribuir uma alíquota 157% maior para áreas mais favorecidas. Estima-se que essa alíquota possa contribuir para uma redução de 47% da diferença na oferta de bens-serviços públicos entre áreas mais e menos favorecidas.
... With 1977's Arlington Heights decision, the US Supreme Court established that a plaintiff would have to provide evidence of discriminatory intent in order to demonstrate a violation of the fourteenth amendment (King 1978;Berry 2001). Specifically, the court established that a segregating effect alone did not demonstrate intent (Mandelker 1977). ...
To date, scholars have examined two common effects of zoning that disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minorities in the United States: (1) exclusionary effects, resulting from zoning’s erection of direct, discriminatory barriers or indirect, economic barriers to geographic mobility; and (2) intensive and expulsive effects, resulting from zoning’s disproportionate targeting of minority residential neighborhoods for commercial and industrial development. In light of recent legal and federal policy developments, continued research is needed to better understand the scale of the gap between the treatment of white and minority communities and to better understand how zoning can reverse past injustices.
... Because it imitates the relationship between the production engineer and the Fordist assembly-line, land-use planning was intended to determine the spatial details before a concrete initiative emerges: whereas manoeuvrability means that details are adapted to the circumstances after a specific initiative was materializing. Detailed, comprehensive long-term plans are therefore circumvented, coerced and amended on a case by case basis (Alfasi, 2006;Berry, 2001;Buitelaar et al., 2011;Buitelaar and Sorel, 2010;Charney, 2013;Cullingworth, 1994a;Waldner, 2009). In effect, the very option of making changes and modifying specific details in a wide-ranging plan is what makes the system work. ...
The article deals with the growing tendency to articulate planning policies through principles and codes, a feature of recent planning theory and practice. While this tool arouses interest and enthusiasm, very little attention is given to how it affects planning thought and impacts – or should impact – the act of planning and the institutions involved. After reviewing pre-modern decision-making frameworks that accompanied the use of planning codes, this article highlights the role of mutual agreement and shared responsibility in the application of the past planning codes. It then discusses the meaning of the transition to planning codes and elaborates on the opportunity to remedy the embedded pitfalls created by applying comprehensive land-use plans as a regulatory tool, and to institute planning that is based on the principles of liberal democracy.
... Covenants can be used as a method of exclusion, either explicitly or surreptitiously. An historic example, and perhaps the most well-known, use of land covenants to exclude was their application across the United States to exclude non-whites from some suburbs (Jones-Correa, 2000 Berry (2001) poses that other types of private covenants may play a part in racial and economic segregation in residential areas of Houston and ...
Strong population growth in Auckland is expected to remain high in coming years, putting
pressure on housing supply in the region. Council’s high-level strategy, The Auckland
Plan, and the Auckland Unitary Plan seek to use both urban intensification and expansion
to supply new dwellings to accommodate the increasing population. But will property level
constraints such as land covenants affect the city’s ability to grow as and where is
needed?
This research was undertaken as part of the New Zealand National Science Challenge 11: Building Better Homes Towns and Cities, through the Architecture of Decision Making workstream.
This research explores the nature of land covenants in New Zealand, their location and numbers in Auckland, and their potential effects on intensification and redevelopment.
... Scholars must also remember that exclusionary zoning is not the only means of achieving income or racial segregation, and scholars cannot ignore that if the power to exclude via zoning were stripped away, communities could still turn to private covenants to limit the types and densities of new housing; these, too, remain effective means of exclusion (Berry, 2001). But the prospect of the wealthy finding other means of excluding should not deter zoning reform; even though exclusion is a moving target, the fewer means of exclusion available, the better. ...
Problem, research strategy, and findings
In light of recent debate over upzonings and leveraging markets as means of expanding housing opportunity, I review the evolution of exclusionary zoning practices in the United States and provide an intellectual history of scholars’ research into these practices. In the context of early 20th-century racial and class tension, American elites coveted the ability to use the states’ police powers to sort out cities by housing type and gained this ability with legislative and judicial support for local land use zoning schemes that controlled residential densities and building forms. Many 20th-century U.S. planners upheld the resulting socially sorted city as an ideal outcome of good zoning practice. But in the postwar decades, a new breed of equity-focused advocacy planner sought to address racial ghettoization by using zoning reforms and other measures to open exclusive areas to low- and moderate-income housing. Wider shifts in housing policy since the 1970s and the increasing attention of economic scholarship to the myriad impacts of American zoning practices have, however, diluted the original equity-focused agenda of exclusionary zoning scholarship.
Takeaway for practice
Given the need for a common effort against business-as-usual zoning in the United States, planners can assert the ethics of the planning profession in debates about American zoning practices. Scholarly and professional efforts to dismantle exclusionary zoning can return to their roots in housing advocacy, becoming one part of a multipronged agenda aimed at expanding housing opportunity by a variety of means.
... It is widely believed that laws, government regulations, and public agencies have played a central role in propagating and maintaining residential segregation in American cities. While there is evidence to support this claim (e.g., Fishback et al. 2013;Fischel 1985), there is also evidence that social norms and private actions are important as well (e.g., Berry 2001;Brooks 2011). Indeed, for much of American history there were few (if any) laws regulating where African Americans (and other minority groups) could reside and yet one can still observe patterns of residential segregation along racial and ethnic lines (Shertzer and Walsh 2019). ...
This article develops and tests a simple model to explain a watershed moment in the history of residential segregation: the passage of municipal segregation ordinances. Passed by American cities between 1909 and 1917, these ordinances were the first formal laws in American history designed to segregate city neighborhoods along racial lines. The ordinances prohibited whites (blacks) on a given city block from selling or renting property to blacks (whites). We argue that prior to these ordinances, cities sustained residential segregation through private norms and vigilante activity. Only when these private arrangements began to break down during the early 1900s did whites start lobbying municipal governments for segregation ordinances.
Public policy is often implemented through formal laws. In contrast to the typically optimistic ex-ante analyses of the impact of a set of laws, in retrospect it may be hard to determine what the laws concretely produced. Particularly complicated to measure are the unintended and indirect effects on actors or values that were not the prime focus of the law. Despite the literature on these matters in other fields of research, among planners the theory of law implementation receives relatively little attention. This attitude may stem from the means-ends rationality that has been common to planning for so many years. This paper makes a plea for focusing on the interaction between people and laws so as to understand the outcomes. We do this by drawing insights from sociological perspectives on laws.
Although it has been readily acknowledged that regional economic growth and structural changes can directly affect land use patterns within the regions, little is known about the inverse: how a change or intervention in land use influences regional economic performance. Does land use planning or regulation promote a region's economic well-being? Alternatively, does this action raise barriers to development and thus slow the pace of economic growth or progress? Under what circumstances and how can we promote the potential contribution and/or minimize unexpected economic consequences of government interventions in land use? This dissertation research consists of the following three related studies that analyze the implications of land use planning and regulation for regional economic performance. The first study empirically examines the potential negative effects of strict land use regulations on local housing supply and household residential mobility. The second study looks at the potential contribution of land use planning to uncertainty reduction and the economically efficient use of land. The third study assesses the macroeconomic effects of reactive land use regulations, implemented by some suburban communities in the Chicago metropolitan area, using a new, improved simulation model. It is expected that the overall research provides better insights into the connections between regional economic shifts and land use changes and will eventually contribute to a more systematic coordination of land use policies and economic development initiatives. 1) Land Use Regulation and Intraregional Population-Employment Interaction: Land use regulation often delays the development process and increases the cost of development, although it may contribute to addressing market failures and realizing a well-organized spatial structure. Raising barriers to development may prevent households from responding to job relocations or job growth at certain locations in a timely manner, by restricting local housing supply. Further, this situation may result in longer commuting distances, times, and costs as well as greater spatial mismatches. To examine the possible adverse effect of the regulation, this study analyzes how intraregional population-employment interaction varies by metropolitan areas having different degrees of land use regulations. First, through a correlation analysis, the results reveal that highly regulated regions are likely to show a lower correlation between intraregional population and employment changes and an increasing mean commuting time between 1990 and 2000. In addition, a spatial econometric analysis using a regional disequilibrium adjustment framework suggests that intraregional population and employment changes may not be well integrated in highly regulated metropolitan areas due to the lower household mobility, even though households and businesses consider accessibility to each other importantly in their location choices. 2) Land Use Planning as Information Production & Exchange: Local governments' land use planning practice has been economically justified as an efficient means of producing and distributing necessary information relevant to land markets and further reducing the intrinsic uncertainties and transaction costs involved in land development processes. Although this way of justification, in addition to traditional welfare-economics-based rationales, has been adopted to give reason for land use planning, not much empirical evidence supporting the claim has been reported. In order to fill this gap, this study attempts to empirically validate the argument by focusing on a particular case, namely the urban fringe land markets where the farmland owners make decisions under uncertainties regarding the timing of potential land development for urban uses. First, through the exploration of land use data in Oregon, distinct farmland use patterns are found, consistent with the expectation that the establishment of urban growth boundaries (UGB) reduces uncertainty and therefore helps farmland owners make informed decision. Furthermore, cross-sectional regression analysis using 82 single-county MSAs' data detects a positive effect of UGB on agricultural investment levels, which may indicate the real contribution of the UGB to uncertainty reduction. The UGB's effect is found to be statistically significant in the MSAs showing relatively larger shares of livestock and fruit production (as opposed to crops) operations that generally require a greater amount of sunk costs and a longer period of operation for profits. 3) The Macroeconomic Effects of Suburban Reactive Land Use Regulations: A Simulation Study using a Spatial REIM (Regional Econometric Input-Output Model): This study assesses the macroeconomic effects of minimum-lot-size requirements and building permit caps that have been implemented by some of the suburban municipalities in the Chicago metropolitan area. This is accomplished by developing a new simulation model, which overcomes the shortcomings of traditional top-down approach to vertical regional economy – land use integration. The new framework captures local- and lower-level dynamics and their effects on regional economic performance by using a modified regional disequilibrium adjustment model that incorporates the intraregional dynamics into a regional econometric input-output model in a reciprocal, interactive manner, as opposed to a top-down allocation process. The model simulation results reveal that the reactive land use regulations (minimum lot size zoning and permit caps), which bind local housing supply and population growth within the jurisdictions, 1) dampen the pace of regional economic growth considerably, although the actions are sometimes favorable to the long-term prosperity of the individual implementing municipalities; 2) tend to generate disproportionate impacts on different sectors of the economy – i.e. local sectors, which heavily depend on household expenditures, are affected more strenuously; and 3) induce effects that vary substantially by location and timing of the implementation.
In the US or in the UK, the presence of institutional investors in real estate markets is an old phenomenon. Specifically, Real Estate Investment Trusts are an old industry. Due to a difference in tax law, the market share of REITs in Germany has been minimal until very recently. Now the legislator has extended the tax privileges held by real estate funds to REITs, expecting that the change will make Germany an attractive place for international investors in these markets. While the effect on capital markets is planned, the German legislator has not been very attentive to likely side effects on the proper functioning of real estate law, landlord and tenant law, and zoning law. The paper analyses these effects, and points to potential legislative concerns.
Las políticas urbanísticas de los gobiernos locales se han centrado en los últimos años en la regeneración urbana y rehabilitación de los edificios existentes en zonas urbanas degradadas especialmente las próximas a los distritos comerciales y de negocios. No sólo con el objeto de mejorar el entorno urbano, sino también de satisfacer la demanda de viviendas en las ciudades que se encuentran en crecimiento. En esta investigación hemos examinado el efecto que el desarrollo de un proyecto de regeneración urbana tiene en el mercado de la vivienda de las zonas de intervención. Hemos establecido índices de impacto de la inversión a partir de diversos supuestos sobre la naturaleza de los bienes públicos generados en los procesos de intervención, con estos índices y mediante la metodología de los precios hedónicos hemos aislado y cuantificado los efectos de la intervención pública en el barrio de Velluters de la ciudad de Valencia. Adicionalmente nos hemos planteado el análisis de la eficiencia del proceso de regeneración urbana llevado a cabo por el sector público en acción conjunta con el sector privado. Este análisis de la eficiencia puede servir de guía para la evaluación de las políticas públicas. Partiendo de la distribución espacial de los índices de impacto que genera la intervención planificada a partir de una distribución dada de las inversiones previstas, y fijándonos unos objetivos concretos del centro decisor sobre la homogeneidad de esta distribución, hemos planteado un modelo que nos permite conocer la distribución de las inversiones realizadas de forma óptima entre los distintos emplazamientos fijados a priori; la comparación entre la distribución espacial de índices de impacto obtenida en ambos casos nos dará una medida de la eficiencia del proceso de intervención. Este mismo modelo podría generalizarse para incluir la localización de la inversión de forma endógena, facilitando el proceso de toma de decisiones derivadas de la implantación de políticas de
Previous research on segregation stresses things like urban form and racial preferences as primary causes. The author finds that an institutional force is more important: local land regulation. Using two datasets of land regulations for the largest U.S. metropolitan areas, the results indicate that anti-density regulations are responsible for large portions of the levels and changes in segregation from 1990 to 2000. A hypothetical switch in zoning regimes from the most exclusionary to the most liberal would reduce the equilibrium gap between the most and least segregated Metropolitan Statistical Areas by at least 35% for the ordinary least squares estimates. Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.
In the US or in the UK, the presence of institutional investors in real estate markets is an old phenomenon. Specifically, Real Estate Investment Trusts are an old industry. Due to a difference in tax law, the market share of REITs in Germany has been minimal until very recently. Now the legislator has extended the tax privileges held by real estate funds to REITs, expecting that the change will make Germany an attractive place for international investors in these markets. While the effect on capital markets is planned, the German legislator has not been very attentive to likely side effects on the proper functioning of real estate law, landlord and tenant law, and zoning law. The paper analyses these effects, and points to potential legislative concerns.
Given disproportionate burden of physical inactivity among US Hispanics and emerging interests in the potential role of the built environment on physical activity, we tested the hypothesis that residing in a more walkable block group is associated with increased physical activity in a cohort of Mexican-American adults. 10,183 Mexican-American adults from Houston, TX, USA were studied. Physical activity was assessed through self-report. Geographical information systems were used to create a "walkability index" (WI). We examined the relationship between WI and physical activity using regression models. Findings for the entire study population suggested a direct association between neighborhood walkability and physical activity that approached statistical significance (High WI vs. Low WI: OR = 1.16; 95 % CI 0.95-1.40). Furthermore, participants who lived in a higher WI neighborhood were more likely to meet physical activity guidelines in 2 groups: (1) men whose recreational physical activity included walking (High WI vs. Low WI: OR = 5.43; 95 % CI 1.30-22.73) and (2) men whose only recreational physical activity was (High WI vs. Low WI: OR = 9.54; 95 % CI 1.84-49.60). Our findings suggest gender differences in the association between the built environment and physical activity in Mexican-American adults. Attempts to encourage walking among Mexican-American adults may be easier in high-walkability neighborhoods than in low-walkability neighborhoods.
This article examines how land use planning and regulation may affect regional economic prosperity by reviewing relevant literature. It identifies a set of complex causal links between land use and regional economies—through (1) development pattern changes and spatial structure reformation, (2) land market efficiency improvements, (3) supply constraints and price increases in property markets, and (4) labor market shifts—that suggest the possibility of countervailing effects. The review also reveals that the economic consequences of land use policies may highly depend on context and that institutional settings as well as substantive policies are essential for achieving more systematic coordination of land use planning and economic development practices.
This paper uses data on over 2800 house sales in Jacksonville, Florida, to estimate the impact of neighbourhood characteristics on house prices. A GIS progamme is used to develop neighbourhood characteristics that are unique to each observation, thereby allowing the evaluation of the impact of neighbourhood attributes in proximity to the dwelling. Except for population density, the effects of neighbourhood characteristics on property values do not decay over a 3-4-mile distance from the dwelling and the results suggest that neighbourhood characteristics over a large geographical area may have a significant effect on property values. Because the study area is a single jurisdiction, the results suggest that the housing market may generate the Tiebout-like exclusion that is usually associated with fiscal fragmentation.
This timely and important book highlights the multiple, often overlooked, and frequently misunderstood connections between land use and development policies and policing practices. In order to do so, the book draws upon multiple literatures-especially law, history, economics, sociology, and psychology-as well as concrete case studies to better explore how these policy arenas, generally treated as completely unrelated, intersect and conflict. Nicole Stelle Garnett identifies different types of urban 'disorder,' some that may be precursors to serious crime and social deviancy, others that may be benign or even contribute positively to urban vitality. The book's unique approach-to analyze city policies through the lens of order and disorder-provides a clearer understanding, generally, of how cities work (and why they sometimes do not), and specifically, of what disorder is and how it affects city life.
Most earlier models of residential sorting employ a 'featureless plain', paying little attention to cities' physical environments. The empirical question of physical features mitigating neighbour externalities remains largely unexplored. This article adds to the literature by considering the environmental aspects of group boundaries. Physical barriers that mitigate the externality of neighbours' characteristics should be expected to have important differential effects on urban land use patterns. This hypothesis is tested for the percentage of Black people in Chicago in 2000. Some features (such as, parks, railroads, major roads) have strong barrier effects. Despite the limitations of this approach, the findings appear robust to spatial dependence in the data. The findings hold important implications for future research into residential location decisions and the planning of public amenities and infrastructure.
Houston is the only major city in North America without zoning. The growth of Houston illustrates a traditional free market philosophy in which land use zoning is seen as a violation of private property and personal liberty. This paper explores how the lack of zoning has an impact on land use controls and urban development in Houston. Using a theoretical framework derived from institutional economics and public choice theories for institutional analyses of land development controls, it explores how local land use policies made by both the local government and non-governmental sectors shape urban development in Houston. The study results show that despite the city’s lack of zoning, local land use regulatory policies made by the municipality have significant influence on urban development. Additionally, civic and private organizations such as super neighborhoods and homeowner associations fill the gaps left by the lack of land use zoning. These two aspects contribute to land use controls and urban development of the city. The study finds that land use controls by private contract and by government legislative intervention are not mutually exclusive or immutable; that equity goals are not met in market approaches, and public planning intervention is necessary; and that deed restrictions might be better at facilitating property sales and maintenance than at improving neighborhood welfare and governance.
This article looks at the efficacy of a diverse set of local growth management programs undertaken in the United States since the early 1970s. Organized into three sections, it begins with a brief history of growth management milestones, tracing the evolution of growth management programs from Ramapo, New York’s original 1969 ordinance to the emergence of the Smart Growth movement in the mid-1990s. A second part organizes and summarizes the growth management efficacy and adverse effect literatures. A third part takes a fresh look at the success of local growth management programs by comparing population growth, sprawl, and fiscal and housing price outcome measures across eight pairs of communities, one of which (i.e., “case study community”) adopted a growth management program, and the other (i.e., “peer community”) which did not. It concludes with a summary assessment of fifty years of local growth management experiences, along with some lessons for how planners might best deal with forthcoming rounds of suburban growth.
Cambridge Core - Sociology of Race and Ethnicity - Segregation by Design - by Jessica Trounstine
Houston is the only major city in North America without zoning. The growth of Houston illustrates a traditional free market philosophy in which zoning is seen as a violation to private property rights. This paper examines how the lack of zoning has an impact on land use and urban form in Houston. It uses cluster analysis integrating socioeconomic factors to select three case study neighbourhoods, and then applies geographical information systems to analyse their urban form spatial characteristics. The study investigates the change of urban form in three neighbourhoods over two decades. The analysis is accompanied by a qualitative investigation of the neighbourhoods, which attempts to address why and how those quantified characteristics of urban form developed over the decades. The paper concludes by discussing the similarity and diversity of land-use patterns and the reasons, by outlining policy implications from the findings on urban form, and by contributing to the debate over urban form and government intervention in better land-use patterns.
This important new book tackles the ongoing debate between market and government in planning. By applying transaction cost economics to an evaluation of land use systems, the author provides a fresh angle and a useful contribution to a growing field of study for researchers in urban planning, public administration and land economics. The book explains the relevance of the cost of land use decisions to planning practice and analyses institutions and transaction costs. The author offers evidence from three systematic empirical studies with detailed analyses of the planning of Nijmegen - Holland being known for its plan-led development; Bristol - where the UK planning system is characterised by being development-led and discretionary; and Houston - generally regarded as the city with no planning at all.
Land use and development pose fundamental long-term governance challenges for city regions across the world. This chapter traces the recent history of reforms in Florida’s growth management regime, advancing understanding of the containment tools employed by cities and the strategies that underlie these configurations. Utilizing surveys of local government planners from three time periods (2002, 2007, and 2015), the chapter examines land-use choices before and after the Great Recession and a state-level deregulatory reform of Florida’s once-heralded growth management system in 2011 to examine variation in land-use regulations at the local level. The patterns have implications for future research and practice and suggest that the durability of land-management tools intended to stave off development and preserve open space may need to be carefully examined apart from smart-growth approaches which assume development is inevitable.
This dissertation consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 examines the identification power of assumptions that formalize the notion of complementarity in the context of a nonparametric bounds analysis of treatment response. I extend the literature on partial identification via shape restrictions by exploiting cross--dimensional restrictions on treatment response when treatments are multidimensional; the assumption of supermodularity can strengthen bounds on average treatment effects in studies of policy complementarity. I combine this restriction with a statistical independence assumption to derive improved bounds on treatment effect distributions, aiding in the evaluation of complex randomized controlled trials. I show how complementarities arising from treatment effect heterogeneity among subpopulations can be incorporated through supermodular instrumental variables to strengthen identification of treatment effects in studies with one or multiple treatments. I use these results to examine the long--run effects of zoning on the evolution of land use patterns.
Chapter 2 considers the determinants of land use regulation. Zoning has been cited as a discriminatory policy tool by critics, who argue that ordinances are used to deter the entry of minority residents into majority neighborhoods through density restrictions (exclusionary zoning) and locate manufacturing activity in minority neighborhoods (environmental racism). However, identifying discrimination in these regulations is complicated by the fact that land use and zoning have been co-evolving for nearly a century. We employ a novel approach to overcome this challenge, studying the introduction of comprehensive zoning in Chicago. We find evidence of a pre-cursor to exclusionary zoning as well as inequitable treatment in industrial use zoning.
Chapter 3 examines the impact of residential density and mixed land use on crime using a unique high-resolution dataset from Chicago over the period 2008-2013. I employ a novel instrumental variable strategy based on the city's 1923 zoning code. I find that commercial uses lead to more street crime in their immediate vicinity, with relatively weak spillovers. However, this effect is strongly offset by density; dense mixed use areas are actually safer than typical residential areas. Additionally, much of the commercial effect is driven by liquor stores and late-hour bars. I discuss the implications for zoning policy.
Many urban growth controls attempt to check sprawl by restricting allowable new housing densities. However, land may be undeveloped to preserve its real-option value. Real options in land markets arise from uncertainty as to the optimum use of a site. By limiting allowable development choices, growth controls can narrow real options and potentially accelerate investment. This paper examines the effect of price volatility, a generator of option value, on the timing of development after the imposition of an Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) around Seattle. While the net effect of the UGB is to lower the likelihood of new housing outside the boundary by between 28% and 39%, price volatility is no longer a deterrent to development. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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