Arbitrary lines : how zoning broke the American city and how to fix it / M. Nolan Gray.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gray, M. Nolan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Zoning law--United States.

Zoning law.

Zoning--United States.

Zoning.

Sustainable urban development.

Discrimination in housing--United States.

Discrimination in housing.

United States.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (258 pages) illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Island Press, 2022.

Summary:

"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, Durham, 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"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Part I. : Chapter 1. Where zoning comes from

Chapter 2. How zoning works

Part II. : Chapter 3. Planning an affordability crisis

Chapter 4. The wealth we lost

Chapter 5. Apartheid by another name

Chapter 6. Sprawl by design

Part III. : Chapter 7. Toward a less bad zoning

Chapter 8. The case for abolishing zoning

Chapter 9. The great unzoned city

Chapter 10. Planning after zoning

Conclusion

Appendix: What zoning isn't.

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on March 17, 2023).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781642832556

1642832553

OCLC:

1310340753