Learning From Land Use Reforms: Housing Outcomes and Regulatory Change

Noah M. Kazis
University of Michigan Law School

Zoning is changing. Paradigms that have stood for a century—like the predominance of singlefamily- only residential zoning—are being questioned and, in some places, abandoned. Political sacred cows, like regulatory mandates for new construction to provide that most valued of amenities, off-street parking, have been gored. Major reforms to loosen zoning and increase the supply of housing have taken place in cities big and small, in state houses and city halls, from coast to coast. Without overstating the case—in most places, the status quo remains unchanged, and even in the few, change has been incremental—there has been a groundswell of support for rethinking the restrictiveness of the American land use system.