Zoning Reform ⁽²⁾

For nearly a century, the golden rule of urban planning was simple: zoning is a local matter. City councils, local planning commissions, and neighborhood councils held the keys to the built environment. They decided where the commercial corridors went, what the setbacks should be, and what kind of housing could be built. But today, we are witnessing a massive paradigm shift. In response to a crippling national housing shortage, states across the United States are taking the wheel. They are increasingly overriding local municipal codes to force increased housing production, fundamentally changing how we plan and build our cities. The…

It started in a classroom at UCLA in 2014. I was working on my Master’s in Urban Planning, when I decided to take a business plan development course jointly offered by the business school. The assignment was to build a business plan for a startup idea, and so my mind went to a recurring problem I had come across during my graduate studies. I was frustrated. As I learned about the major role local governments have played in shaping our built environment, I saw a stark contrast. Private organizations were constantly upgrading their tech stacks, streamlining operations, and becoming more…