Changing Residential Land Use Regulations to Address High Housing Prices

Problem, research strategy, and findings: In the past 3 decades, a series of presidential administrations—and the APA—have recommended that cities update their zoning codes to enable more affordable and market-rate housing development. I identify 5 main categories of policy recommendations they have suggested and then assess Los Angeles’s (CA) zoning changes in these categories between 2000 and 2016. I answer 2 questions: First, what zoning changes did Los Angeles adopt to address housing affordability? Second, how were these changes initiated, and what were their scope and geographic extent? I find that Los Angeles made modest progress in the 5 policy categories. The city left its large-lot, single-family zoning mostly untouched, but it rezoned roughly 1,200 acres citywide to allow at least 50 housing units per acre, reduced parking requirements in some areas, made it easier to build accessory dwelling units, and adopted new incentives for affordable housing. Several policy changes resulted from new state laws, and Los Angeles voters approved new incentives for affordable housing near transit. Homeowner influence likely prevented the municipality from engaging in larger zoning reforms. I do not study the effects of Los Angeles’s regulatory changes on housing production and prices, but such research is an important next step. I also do not assess new regulations that counteracted the impact of the 5 categories of policy recommendations.

Takeaway for practice: This research suggests 2 lessons: 1) Planners should encourage state governments to preempt local zoning when it reduces affordable housing options and there is limited local political will for change, and 2) planners should identify feasible and effective zoning changes that would increase affordable housing given local considerations.     

The Link Between Local Comprehensive Plans and Housing Affordability: A Comparative Study of the Atlanta and Detroit Metropolitan Areas

Problem, research strategy, and findings: I question whether the strength of affordable housing policies in local comprehensive plans is associated with better affordable housing outcomes, which I measure as a decrease in the share of low-income households who spend more than 30% of their income for housing, otherwise known as cost-burdened households. I first assess the strength of affordable housing policies in 58 local comprehensive plans, counting the number of—and degree of coercion in—those affordable housing policies. I then analyze the relationship between the strength of affordable housing policies and changes in the share of low-income households with cost burden. I find that the strength of affordable housing policies is higher in the Atlanta (GA) metropolitan area than in the Detroit (MI) metropolitan area. I also find that the strength of affordable housing policies is positively associated with a decrease in the share of low-income households paying more than 30% of their income for housing in the Atlanta metropolitan area. I do not find a comparable relationship between plan strength and housing outcomes in the Detroit metropolitan area. I also find that the state role matters: Georgia provides more support and guidance for local comprehensive planning, and for affordable housing policies in those plans, than does Michigan.

Takeaway for practice: Planners should continually promote local comprehensive plans that include more and stronger affordable housing policies and advocate for greater state support for comprehensive planning and affordable housing policies because these appear to lead to a greater likelihood of implementing stronger plans.     

Planning for Mixed Use: Affordable for Whom?

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Mixed-use zoning is widely advocated to increase density; promote active transportation; encourage economic development; and create lively, diverse neighborhoods. We know little, however, about whether mixed-use developments affect housing affordability. We question the impact of mixed-use zoning on housing affordability in Toronto (Canada) between 1991 and 2006 in the face of waning government support for affordable housing and increasing income inequality due to the occupational restructuring accompanying a shift to a knowledge-based economy. We fi nd that housing in mixed-use zones remained less affordable than housing in the rest of the city and in the metropolitan region. High-income service occupations experienced improved affordability while lower wage service, trade, and manufacturing occupations experienced stagnant or worsening affordability. Housing in mixed-use zones is increasingly affordable only to workers already able to pay higher housing costs. Our findings are limited to Canada's largest city but have lessons for large North American cities with similar urban economies and housing markets.

Takeaway for practice: Mixed-use developments may reduce housing affordability in core areas and inadvertently reinforce the sociospatial inequality resulting from occupational polarization unless supported by appropriate affordable housing policies. Planners should consider a range of policy measures to offset the unintentional outcomes of mixed-use developments and ensure affordability within mixed-use zones: inclusionary zoning, density bonuses linked to affordable housing, affordable housing trusts, and other relevant methods.     

Measuring Informal Housing Production in California Cities

Problem, research strategy, and ­findings: Planning scholars and practitioners once assumed informal housing was largely absent in the developed world; today they increasingly acknowledge its role in the United States. Recent evidence suggests that informal housing, or non-permitted construction, is a significant phenomenon inside incorporated cities, despite widespread regulations and code enforcement. Informal housing is a de facto source of otherwise scarce affordable housing in many locations, but also compromises health and safety and strains municipal infrastructure and fiscal health. Planners lack a means of measuring informal construction at the scale of individual cities. We propose such a method, and apply it to incorporated cities in California. Data limitations prevent us from precisely estimating the magnitude of non-permitted construction, but our findings suggest that informal channels are an important source of housing production, especially in the places where permitted construction is constrained.

Takeaway for practice: We urge planners to engage with informal housing issues, given the considerable importance of this hidden yet vital portion of the housing market as a means of providing living spaces amid tight housing market conditions. Our method for calculating the rate of informal housing addition is a useful tool for planners to gather basic facts about the informal housing market in their communities, a prerequisite for policy interventions.     

Housing during recession: Illustrations from Latin America

Latin America's cities grew rapidly after 1940 during a period of continuous economic growth. Booming populations were accommodated by a massive increase in the housing stock. Most of the increase in the low‐income housing stock came from ‘self‐help’ construction. Much of the consequent housing was gradually improved and serviced; levels of owner occupation increased.

Since 1980, of course, economic and social conditions in most Latin American countries have deteriorated. The debt crisis, consequent inflation, and governmental responses to those twin problems have led to a sharp deterioration in living standards for poor and middle class alike. This prompts the question: what has happened to the housing stock and how has self‐help construction reacted to conditions of economic recession?

The paper analyses recent changes in the Latin American housing situation with illustrations from Mexico and Venezuela. It examines state policy in the two countries and asks whether self‐help housing constitutes ‘an architecture that works’ even under conditions of extreme economic recession.     

Housing finance in the Nordic countries

The aim of this article is to describe and compare the housing finance systems in the Nordic countries from a housing policy perspective. The starting point is the obvious similarity between the countries in economic, cultural, geographical and historical respects. While a housing consumption goal is important to all these countries and in spite of their similarities, the countries have chosen quite different housing finance systems.

It is suggested that one explanation of these differences is different methods of targeting or selectivity. Nevertheless, some countries do have a more selective policy than others. One explanation may be differences in the housing stock. It is observed that countries with a high share of selective subsidies do not have a public, non‐profit housing sector. The paper ends with a discussion of the need for more research in this important area.     

Lessons for LEED® for Neighborhood Development,Social Equity,and Affordable Housing

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® for Neighborhood Development (LEED®ND) is a rating system designed to encourage sustainable development. I explore why and how most LEED®ND projects ultimately fail to meet the equity goals inherent in sustainability. I survey 114 LEED®ND accredited professionals (APs) and conduct 20 interviews with LEED®ND APs to illuminate the role of the rating system in developer decisions to include affordable housing in their projects. I also explore why nonprofit developers see value in seeking LEED®ND certification for their projects. Although a limited sample, it provides insights into how the certification process affects developer decisions. I find that the LEED®ND rating system does a poor job of encouraging developers to provide affordable housing: Only 40% of LEED®ND-certified projects include affordable housing. LEED®ND APs do not feel that the system offers sufficient incentives to overcome the risks and costs of providing affordable housing. Nonprofit developers might pursue LEED®ND to create savings for residents, but may be deterred by the cost of certification. Most respondents feel that the affordable housing credit should be increased and improved to provide adequate incentives to developers.

Takeaway for practice: Planners cannot count on LEED®ND certification to ensure the provision of affordable and mixed housing in sustainable neighborhoods. The LEED®ND system could be improved by weighting the affordable housing credit more heavily; developers could also be incentivized to build a greater mix of housing. The certification costs could be lowered or subsidized for projects with affordable housing and assessed on a per unit basis. Additional credits could be given to projects that significantly reduce utility costs for low-income residents.     

Housing policy in the emergent socialist mixed economy of Eastern Europe

The late 1980s signal a qualitatively new stage in the development of socialist economies. Earlier reforms attempted to move away from a monolithic, centrally planned system, to find more effective mechanisms of economic management, in particular to reduce the role of planning and increase the role of the market within the statist economy. But during the last two or three years a significant change has occurred in the reform discourse. The debate over ‘how much plan and how much market’ has come to be replaced by a call for a reform of ownership (Bauer, 1988). A ‘socialist mixed economy’, with a statist sector complemented by a private sector seems to be in the making.

This paper has two aims.

In the first part I present the trend towards a socialist mixed economy. I will explain the forces pointing in this direction, the likely functioning of a socialist mixed economy, and finally, how different a socialist mixed economy might be from a capitalist one.

In the second part I look at the housing economy, and explore how housing policy may change as the national economy becomes increasingly mixed. Re‐privatisation of housing preceded re‐privatisation or deregulation in other sectors. From the late 1960s onwards the state began to withdraw from housing construction in many countries (Ciechocinska, 1988; Daniel and Temesi, 1984; Tosics, 1987). By the late 1980s a significant proportion of new housing was built which was the individual property of the occupants. Is the housing system therefore already a mixed economy? In my view, the answer to this question is no. The main purpose of the second section of my paper is to show that this ‘re‐privatisation’ or ‘marketisation’ of the housing economy has been highly restricted. As far as the system of production is concerned there has been no private (profit orientated) sector in the housing economy; market‐like forces only regulated the distribution of housing. The task of this paper is to show that the transformation of the national economy into a socialist mixed economy is therefore likely to have far‐reaching consequences for the housing system. I will also try to show, in some detail, what these consequences are likely to be.     

Streamlining the Development Approval Process in a Post–Level of Service Los Angeles

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Local governments across the United States have for decades relied on the autocentric level of service (LOS) metric to analyze and impose exactions for the transportation impacts of land use developments. In California, LOS has dominated transportation impact analysis under the state’s project-level environmental review law. In that role, LOS has exacerbated the state’s notoriously tortuous development approval processes, particularly in urban areas. But LOS is on its way out. The state recently replaced LOS with vehicle miles traveled (VMT) as the primary measure—and basis for mitigation—of transportation impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act. Local governments must make the switch by July 1, 2020. We use a historical counterfactual approach to assess how replacing LOS with VMT could have affected the approval process for 153 land development projects over 16?years in the city of Los Angeles. We find that most projects could have benefited from at least some environmental review streamlining under the VMT-based framework recommended by the state, including more than 75% of residential-containing projects.

Takeaway for practice: Our results suggest that swapping LOS for VMT could reduce the environmental review burden for development in low-VMT urban areas and provide at least some of the approval process streamlining necessary to increase housing production in California. Similar impacts from an LOS-to-VMT switch could also potentially accrue outside of California under the right conditions, but more research is needed.     

Examining spatial patterns in affordable housing: the case of California density bonus implementation

California State Density Bonus Law §65915–18 financially incentivizes housing developers to produce affordable housing by granting density bonuses to those who designate a percentage of the total units for residence by low or moderate income households. By incorporating affordable housing units alongside market-rate units, state density bonus law fosters opportunities to enhance neighborhood level socio-economic diversity. This paper investigates the effectiveness of density bonus policy at promoting socio-economic diversity within the City of San Diego by examining locational patterns of density bonus implementation and neighborhood demographic characteristics. This study utilizes spatial and non-spatial statistical analyses to identify trends and correlations in density bonus usage, housing stock, and racial and economic characteristics. The results indicate that density bonus usage in San Diego has not fostered socio-economic integration; rather its usage is clustered in neighborhoods characterized by high concentrations of Hispanics, Blacks, and multi-family housing units. The findings underscore the need to refine supply-side affordable housing tools so that they are effective in a range of land markets, and not only in the traditionally lower value land markets where minority households tend to reside.     

Housing policy: Comparing international comparisons

Land and Housing Policies In Europe and The USA. Graham Hallett (ed). London: Routledge, 1988. pp216. £27.50.

Housing and Social Change in Europe and The USA. Michael Ball, Michael Harloe and Maartje Martens. London: Routledge, 1988. pp222. £30.00.

Polarisation and Social Housing: The British and French Experience. Peter Willmott and Alan Murie. London: Policy Studies Institute, 1988. pp101. £5.95.     

Using Photography to Assess Housing Damage and Rebuilding Progress for Disaster Recovery Planning

Problem, research strategy, and findings: U.S. communities rarely plan for recovery after a disaster, but planners have the skills to help communities redevelop, particularly in rebuilding housing, a key to community recovery. Planners, however, need appropriate and timely data on initial damage and rebuilding over time to apply for available funding, determine needs for temporary housing, address equity issues, develop appropriate policy interventions, track progress, and communicate transparently with all stakeholders. There is no accepted cost-effective and systematic method of providing those data. We developed a scalable method in which we photograph and assess the extent of home damage and rebuilding by reorienting existing damage assessment methods to provide data that can be linked to GIS and other local data to meet planning needs. We test the utility of our approach in West (TX), the site of a catastrophic fertilizer facility explosion in 2013. We compare our damage assessments to county property tax reappraisals after the disaster, finding that our approach is more accurate, generally identifying less damage and greater rebuilding than the county assumed. We conclude that our method improves on windshield surveys and other suggested methods of collecting damage and rebuilding data; it can provide efficient assessments of damage and rebuilding in technological disasters.

Takeaway for practice: We created a simple and cost-effective method of assessing initial damage to homes after a disaster and of measuring the extent of rebuilding. This method provides photos and easy-to-understand data that planners can use to meet multiple reporting requirements, to reassess redevelopment strategies, and to report progress to stakeholders.     

The Hallagerbakken housing project in Holmlia,Norway: when welfare became business

The late 1970s and early 1980s witnessed one of the most influential shifts within the organisational system of production for Norwegian mass housing. Although the increased availability of resources following the Second World War and the discovery of North Sea oil put the Norwegian government in a favourable position for investing in state-sponsored housing programmes, such investments did not happen. Instead, the strong public responsibility for affordable housing as a right of all citizens was weakened, and housing evolved into a commodity to be traded primarily on the free market.

Hallagerbakken, a housing project within the Holmlia satellite town—the last large housing development in the south of Oslo—has been influenced by several of the changes that occurred in the housing sector during this period. The resulting hybrid housing typology represented an innovation in the Norwegian setting, and, as a result, the project provides a starting point for re-evaluating some of the shifts towards a more market-oriented reality within architecture and the built environment.     

Parks for an Aging Population: Needs and Preferences of Low-Income Seniors in Los Angeles

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Parks provide important physiological and psychological benefi ts to seniors, improving their quality of life; they are particularly important for low-income, inner-city seniors who lack access to open and green space. However, seniors do not often use parks partly because park design and programming are not responsive to their diverse needs and values. To identify what low-income, inner-city seniors seek and value in neighborhood parks, and to provide guidance to planners on how to better design senior-friendly parks, we conducted a literature review and held focus groups with 39 low-income, ethnically diverse seniors in an inner-city neighborhood in Los Angeles (CA). We asked these seniors about their preferences as well as the challenges and barriers they encounter in using neighborhood parks. Seniors report many impediments to park use; they are not provided appropriate programming that allows opportunities for socializing, safety, and security within the park and along access routes; opportunities for exercise and walking; and aesthetic and natural elements that provide contact with nature.

Takeaway for practice: Park planners and designers should seek to incorporate senior voices in park design and programming in four ways by developing appropriate programming sensitive to diverse needs, accommodating the desire for “seniors-only” parks, promoting security and safety in the park and along access routes, and offering open and green space. We also fi nd the need for additional research on seniors from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.     

The social use of market processes in British and Hungarian housing policies

The switch of state subsidies away from support for public housing investment and towards an intensification of market processes is no longer the prerogative of Western countries, but, in the 1980s, has also become a feature of some state socialist societies. However, given the contrasting social, political and economic character of these societies, does the apparently similar process of privatisation in fact have the same characteristics, meaning and social consequences?

In this paper Britain and Hungary have been chosen as countries representative of the two social systems and in which market processes have intensified. The comparison begins by examining the social meaning of'owning’ and ‘renting’, the historical context of the development of housing policy, the allocation systems, rents, and subsidies. Focusing on the social housing sector the paper contrasts current housing issues. Particular attention is given to the “Right to Buy” policy which is a common feature in the 1980s of housing policy in both countries.

As a result of their mainly empirical comparison the authors conclude that privatisation in Britain and Hungary occurred in housing systems which have been similar in their tenure structure but very different in historical context. Because the broad social‐political context of privatisation is different, particularly the economic and institutional interests rooted within this issue, it is not inevitable that the regressive social consequences of measures which promote the privatisation process (which are common to both countries) are automatically negative in terms of the general sociological assessment.Thus comparison can help in the preparation of policy options and the assessment of new possibilities, but only as background. Strategies should be evaluated primarily against the social‐political context of each country and against the current policy objectives.     

Redefining Car Access

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Ride-hail services such as Uber and Lyft have the potential to redefine car access and travel, but unclear associations with the built environment and resident characteristics have undermined planners’ abilities to make informed decisions. I use detailed data of 6.3 million Lyft trips in Los Angeles (CA) to examine the associations between Lyft travel, the built environment, and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics. Although data are limited to one American city, findings present a comprehensive understanding of Lyft use across an array of built environments. I find that, far from being limited to dense urban cores, Lyft provides automobility in suburban and even rural neighborhoods. Findings suggest that unlike taxis, ride-hailing does not exclude low-income neighborhoods and communities. Instead, Lyft provides car access in neighborhoods where its closest substitute, the household car, is scarcest. Most travelers use ride-hailing to fill an occasional rather than regular travel need, but a small share of users made the most ride-hail trips. Travelers without smartphones or bank accounts, however, may be excluded from ride-hailing.

Takeaway for practice: Widespread Lyft use demonstrates that planners should anticipate ride-hailing not just in urban centers but across a wide array of built environments. Negative associations between Lyft travel and off-street parking suggest that ride-hailing can provide new modal options where parking is already constrained or where new parking restrictions are introduced. Planners should work with communities and transit agencies to adopt strategies or enter partnerships that extend ride-hail, or other technology-enabled mobility services, to travelers without smartphones or bank accounts.     

Private sector housing in urban China since 1949: The case of Xian

Research on urban housing policies in socialist China and Eastern European countries has concentrated on understanding the production and distribution of state housing. More recently researchers have shifted their attention to the commodification of urban housing and establishment of private housing markets. A very important aspect of socialist housing ‐ the process of nationalisation of privately owned urban housing in the early period of socialist development ‐ has been relatively neglected. Ignoring this aspect of the historical background of socialist urban housing policy may create difficulties in understanding the nature of the public sector and recent privatisation experience.

This paper intends to fill this gap in relation to China by examining both the nationalisation of urban privately owned housing in the early years of socialism and the more recent privatisation and commercialisation of the urban housing sector. This highlights shifting approaches to the urban housing market in different periods of socialist development and helps in understanding recent developments in housing reform. It examines the development of policy and the resultant impacts on the private housing market in Xian, one of the major cities in central China. The pattern of private ownership, the state policy of nationalisation and the more recent commercialisation of urban public sector housing are the main issues examined.     

Do Farmers' Markets Increase Access to Healthy Foods for All Communities? Comparing Markets in 24 Neighborhoods in Los Angeles

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Farmers' markets provide one option for remedying the startling decline in fresh vegetable and fruit consumption in the United States, particularly in low-income, non-White neighborhoods where opportunities to access these components of a healthy diet are often limited. We lack empirical research on whether farmer's markets provide fresh vegetables and fruits consistently across locations. We audited product offerings at 24 farmers' markets in Los Angeles at two points in time and interviewed a sample of market managers to compare market offerings across neighborhoods to determine whether farmers' markets alleviate disparities experienced by low-income and non-White communities. Farmers' markets in low-income and non-White communities are smaller and provide fewer fresh fruits and vegetables than markets situated in more affluent communities. Managers suggest that their first priority is to stock fresh produce, but other factors such as competition and farmer recruitment and retention often influence market offerings.

Takeaway for practice: Planners cannot count on farmers' markets to fully remedy disparities in the availability of fresh vegetables and fruits. We need additional research to understand the range of social, ecological, and health benefits created by farmers' markets in a neighborhood. Planners should begin working with other agencies to conduct community food assessments to better evaluate strategies for addressing inequalities seen in neighborhood access to healthy food.