Municipal land use—and zoning regulations in particular—has transformed in recent years from an esoteric local development matter into a hotly debated and fiercely contested public policy issue. There are many academic and mainstream periodical articles published in recent years drawing attention to the harmful effects or deleterious consequences of exclusionary and restrictive zoning, investigating the origins of zoning, and concomitant calls for zoning reform. There is, however, a relative dearth of scholarship examining zoning reform policies that have been promulgated in response, comparing their features, studying the reform process, or tracing the trajectory of policy reform, especially those adopted in the last few years as a product of the pro-housing movement.
This Article fills a critical gap in scholarship by examining recent zoning policy reform efforts, successes as well as failures, analyzing the elements and types of reform, and tracing and extrapolating the trajectory of reform based upon the pace and pattern of reform efforts underway or already adopted. By drawing a comparison to the evolution of fair housing ordinances and the open housing movement of the 1950s and 60s, this Article draws lessons and makes predictions about the future of zoning reform and the challenges the pro-housing movement will have to overcome to produce meaningful and sustainable change in curtailing restrictive and exclusionary zoning practices and their harmful effects.
Citation: Stephen Menendian, The Uneven March of Progress: The Past, Present, and Future of Zoning Reform in the United States, 21 RUTGERS J.L. & PUB. POL’Y. 73 (2023).
