Learning From Land Use Reforms : Housing Outcomes and Regulatory Change

This essay serves as the introduction for an edited, interdisciplinary symposium of articles studying recent land use reforms at the state and local level. These papers provide important descriptive analyses of a range of policy interventions, using quantitative and qualitative methods to provide new empirical insights into zoning reform strategies. After situating and summarizing the collected articles, the Introduction draws out shared themes. For example, these essays demonstrate the efficacy of recent reforms, not only at facilitating housing production but at doing so in especially difficult contexts (like when producing affordable housing and redeveloping single-family neighborhoods). They point to the characteristics of neighborhoods that may be most affected by land use reforms. They show the importance of close attention to forms of tenure and continued demand for ownership models even in densifying locations; the risks of inclusionary zoning as a strategy; and the importance of continued tinkering with policy details for successful implementation