U.S. Zoning, Explained

this is Mount Laurel New Jersey this suburban community near Philadelphia doesn't look like much but it was the epicenter of a zoning controversy 50 years ago that changed everything in the early 1970s the leaders of Mount Laurel made it explicit that their Community was for upper income residents only they didn't want any poor people the mayor at the time even went to a church in a lower income black neighborhood and told them if you can't afford to live in our town then you'll just have to leave the local government adopted a zoning code that forbade small lots for homes only allowing more expensive large Lots the zoning code prohibited mobile homes one of the most common types of affordable housing in one zone They allowed planned unit developments neighborhoods created all at once basically but would only approve them if the real estate developer did not include any units for low-income households this was a deliberate and explicit attempt at what we now call exclusionary zoning the New Jersey Supreme Court in two separate rulings ended the practice went even farther they said that New Jersey communities had a Zone for people of all incomes zoning hasn't become less controversial with a passage of time it's been blamed for causing systemic inequalities in cities for making traffic worse and for making the suburbs boring if zoning is so terrible why do so many cities have a zoning code on the books in this video we're going to learn all about zoning what it is and what it's intended to do we'll also talk about the critiques of zoning and whether or not zoning code should just be removed and during this video I'm going to try to film in as many zones as possible so let's find out how many after the bike belt zoning can be incredibly influential but also kind of invisible for many people their first and only experience with zoning is through playing games like SimCity and City skylines for others Sony's confused with planning all planning is zoning but that's not true what then is zoning exactly it fundamentally separates parts of a city into zones it's right there in the name uh close enough each of these zones has a unique set of rules about what uses can be located there and how dense it can be local governments like zoning because it creates a lot of clarity for everyone who owns land and it saves a lot of work for local government employees without zoning every new fence or business application would have to be decided on a case-by-case basis zoning allows some decisions to be handled ministerially meaning that if an applicant follows the zoning code and they want to build a fence it will be approved quickly by City staff without getting a governing body like a Planning Commission or city council involved let's take a look at a zoning code for a second most Sony codes have three parts the map the use table and the development standards the map shows every single parcel in the city and color codes them by Zone City skylines and SimCity get the colors all raw in the real world residential is yellow commercial is red mixed use is purple industrial zones are gray institutional uses like schools and City Halls are blue and open space and parks are appropriately green a property owner should be able to look at a zoning map and know exactly what zone that parcel is in and that parcel should be in exactly one zone cities usually create zones and separate them by use and density use is what I talked about before like residential commercial and Industrial density is usually a gradient like low density medium density and high density it's very common to see R1 in the zoning code mean low density residential an R3 Zone would allow high density housing like apartment buildings sometimes cities will include overlay zones that impose additional regulations on top of the existing zones to a specific area these can be used for things like historic districts business districts and more the map gives basic information about what is allowed in each Zone but the use table gets much more specific it lists everything from funeral homes to daycare centers to tattoo parlors here's how you read one of these charts the zones are often listed at the top and the uses on the left here you can see that Pokemon gems are a for Allowed by right in commercial zones but require a use permit in residential zones and are not allowed in industrial zones buy right means that they don't need any special review and can be approved ministerially a use permit means that a business needs to apply with the local government and get approval for setting up shop in that zone governments do this to ensure that the use is compatible with other nearby uses and the spirit of the zone finally the zoning code contains development standards this part is all about specifics it will specify setbacks building Heights lock coverage and all sorts of other minutia this is where you look to see if you can add an addition to your house for example if you have a smaller lot you may not have enough room factoring in setbacks and you might not be able to go up if there's a height limit Additionally the zoning code will often contain special sections for topics like Signs and parking both are heavily regulated by zoning and topics for future videos zoning codes are meant to be clear and impartial and are designed to promote the orderly growth and development of a city they prevent chemical plants from being located next to daycare facilities most people consider that a good thing unless you're hoping to raise a superhero toddler the earliest zoning code in the United States New York City in 1916 didn't even particularly care about uses it was more concerned about ensuring light and air reach the street buildings like this one cast enormous shadows and the zoning code required setbacks to keep the street from feeling like a canyon in the years that followed other cities began to experiment with zoning but cities were wary nobody was sure if the local governments had the ability to regulate land use like that it seemed like it was taking away some pretty essential property rights and that's exactly what was put to the test in the landmark Supreme Court case Village of Euclid versus Ambler realty company in 1926. Ambler Realty wanted to put 68 Acres they owned in Euclid Ohio to an industrial use the village had a zoning code that said that Ambush property couldn't be used that way Ambler sued saying that the zoning code devalued their property and was a violation of due process the court sided with the village saying that the plan wasn't arbitrary and was a national extension of The Village's right to regulate the case solidified zoning as an acceptable practice the federal government published model zoning enabling acts for State legislatures the states adopted the enabling acts which officially gave cities the right to Zone cities took that right and divided up their cities by use and density just like the zoning code we looked at earlier one important thing to know about zoning is that it's less effective in areas that are already built out and more effective in areas yet to be built if a city assigned a residential Zone to a bunch of factories the factors would not have to be demolished they would simply be a non-conforming use if someone wanted to do something other than run a factory on that property they would have to comply with the new zoning and only build housing but cities were adopting zoning codes right around the same time that cars were gaining popularity and people were moving into the suburbs zoning became a useful tool for separating uses to such a degree that most trips had to be made by car combine that with mandates to only build single-family housing and you have zoning providing the legal framework for suburban sprawl and of course zoning codes could explicitly promote inequality like the Mount Laurel example at the beginning of the video there were some other tricks too many cities zoned white areas as low density so no minorities or low income people could move in and Zone black areas as high density so they could only have apartment buildings cities like Austin and Kansas City specifically use the terms black neighborhoods and white neighborhoods in official planning documents as late as the 1980s zoning reinforced those boundaries so then what's the solution well zoning doesn't have to work like it does now I did a whole video that comparison contrasts U.S and European zoning and the bottom line is that there are many different ways to regulate land use zoning codes can focus Less on use and more about the size and shape of the building itself these codes are called form-based codes and they've been employed in a few communities in the U.S increasingly cities and states have begun to loosen up on the tight restrictions on uses that zoning codes mandate the big push has been to do away with single-family zoning or R1 cities like Portland Minneapolis now allow for more than one home in each lot in an R1 Zone many cities have adapted zoning changes to allow accessory dwelling units little backyard homes in single-family zones these units can provide much needed affordable housing while not dramatically altering the character of the neighborhood abolishing single family zoning will certainly make cities more sustainable and affordable but it's only one fix in a system that needs many of them today's zoning codes were originally written 50 to 100 years ago and have many fixes patches and updates which makes them more complicated and Bloated than necessary it's not unlike Legacy software only this software's accelerating climate change and propping up an unjust Landing system increasingly people are calling for scrapping zoning entirely and relying on other forms of land use regulation cities could rely more on comprehensive plans which are broader and updated more frequently than zoning codes combined with more fine-grained regulation like deed restrictions cities could still broadly plan for Urban Development while having a system that focuses on the minutia of solving nuisance issues between uses check out my video on Houston for more information on deed restrictions all that said zoning is still a part of our Urban lives reforms are happening though and in 10 to 20 years the average U.S zoning code could look quite different than it does today and given the scope of our Urban problems that's probably a good thing I think one lesson we can take away from all this is sometimes modern practices like zoning aren't as good as the way things used to be I think the same is true for shaving today you have three four five blade razor cartridges and they cost like two dollars each it used to be that a simple razor and one blade was good enough I think that's still true today's sponsor Henson shaving is proving that's correct they don't make you buy a cheap handle and spend like a hundred dollars a year on blades but instead they produce one great high quality metal handle that takes 10 cent blades your overall cost of ownership is so much lower with Henson because while you get a quality handle you're not spending so much money all the time to replace those blades like you do today and let's talk about this handle for a second because Henson are aerospace engineers they manufacture stuff to Precision grade they have stuff that's flying in space right now they figured out the optimal angle for a shave is 30 degrees they've also created a razor that supports the blade across the width that gives you clean shaves with fewer Nicks and ingrown hairs if you're a long time viewer of this channel you'll know that I've never had a beard shaving is pretty much part of my daily life which is why I'm totally happy to have Henson as a sponsor because this is the best razor I've ever seen or used so if you want to get yours go to hensonshaving.com you can click on the link on screen or in the description and use code city beautiful when you do you'll get a hundred pack of blades for free that should keep you going for probably a year at least in the total cost of ownership is less than a regular razor it's a good deal all around if you're supporting this channel so again go click on the link on screen or in the description get your free blades thanks

Channel: City Beautiful

Views: 231,396

Keywords: city planning, town planning, urban planning, urban design

Id: qQ7MP2e7Bqk

Length: 11min 2sec (662 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 28 2023