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It’s Time to End Single-Family Zoning

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  • Michael Manville
  • Paavo Monkkonen
  • Michael Lens

Abstract

Local planning in the United States is unique in the amount of land it reserves for detached single-family homes. This privileging of single-family homes, normally called R1 zoning, exacerbates inequality and undermines efficiency. R1’s origins are unpleasant: Stained by explicitly classist and implicitly racist motivations, R1 today continues to promote exclusion. It makes it harder for people to access high-opportunity places, and in expensive regions it contributes to shortages of housing, thereby benefiting homeowners at the expense of renters and forcing many housing consumers to spend more on housing. Stacked against these drawbacks, moreover, are a series of only weak arguments in R1’s favor about preferences, aesthetics, and a single-family way of life. We demonstrate that these pro-R1 concerns are either specious, or can be addressed in ways less socially harmful than R1. Given the strong arguments against R1 and the weak arguments for it, we contend planners should work to abolish R1 single-family zoning.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Manville & Paavo Monkkonen & Michael Lens, 2020. "It’s Time to End Single-Family Zoning," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 86(1), pages 106-112, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rjpaxx:v:86:y:2020:i:1:p:106-112
    DOI: 10.1080/01944363.2019.1651216
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    Cited by:

    1. Kim, Jae Hong & Li, Xiangyu, 2021. "Building more housing near transit: A spatial analysis of residential densification dynamics," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 15-24.
    2. Eliot Tretter & Elizabeth J. Mueller & Rich Heyman, 2022. "Yimbyism, The Environment, And The Remaking Of Race And Class Coalitions In Austin, Tx," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 312-318, March.
    3. Volker, Jamey M B, 2020. "Exploring the Changing Faces of Housing Development and Demand in California: Millennials, Casitas, and Reducing VMT," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt6p94s5mc, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    4. Renee Tapp, 2021. "Introducing the YIMBYs: Renters, housing, and supply-side politics in Los Angeles," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(7), pages 1511-1528, November.

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