From Traditional to Reformed: A Review of the Land Use Regulations in the Nation’s 50 Largest Metropolitan Areas

Abstract

Local land use regulations aid in the definition of the character of towns, cities, counties, and entire regions. Infrastructure control, zoning, urban containment, comprehensive plans, permit caps, and building moratoriums can promote density, drive development outward, or something in between. They can also directly affect the composition of residents by facilitating low-income residents and rental properties, especially when these regulations go along with programs to promote affordable housing. This comprehensive survey of local land use regulations finds a wide variety of regulatory types. It classifies them in four broad typologies, across the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas. These types range from restrictive and exclusionary to accommodating and innovative. The regulations produce a variety of effects on metropolitan density and growth, and on the opportunities afforded to the inhabitants of the areas.