Does Zoning Create a Vicious Circle—Or Can It Fix Itself?
Ideally, planners could balance homeowners' interests in zoning against the public good, liberalizing zoning when prices got too high. But this may be politically impossible.
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As I and many others have argued (both in Planetizen and elsewhere) existing zoning increases housing costs and accelerates suburban sprawl by restricting the housing supply available in close-in, walkable neighborhoods. It could be argued, however, that planners can both use zoning to slow neighborhood change and keep housing affordable. This would be the case if when rents rose significantly, political pressure to liberalize zoning increased, thus slowing the growth of rent and housing prices. If this were the case, zoning would be self-correcting and thus more defensible.