Exclusionary Zoning Response

Zoning is a strategy used by towns in order to organize residential and corporate land areas. In order to ensure that the town does not become over-developed or cramped, developers utilize zoning strategies in order to organize their land and separate homes from businesses. These strategies also plan out park space, school space, and other neighborhood areas. Furthermore, there are zoning restrictions in residential areas that limit the physical size of homes, how many people can live there, and how much yard space is allowed, among numerous other factors.

Unfortunately, zoning is a tactic used by towns in order to exclude lower class citizens from purchasing a home within their district. In this way, these strategies fall under the term, “exclusionary zoning”. Various zoning restrictions, such as minimum lot sizes and low-density rules limit the opportunities for low-income families to purchase homes in certain areas. Low-income families may not be able to afford a home on their own, but since there are low-density limits on most houses in the suburbs, they are not allowed to live with another family. Furthermore, houses can be zoned for particular uses, usually expensive uses, in order to exclude those who cannot afford it. “These types of land use policies increase the costs of development, and therefore the price of housing in suburbs” (Reece et al, p. 20).

In the suburbs, public services are predominantly funded by property taxes. This means that these homes are even more expensive and therefore it is highly unlikely that low-income families can afford to live there. There is documented evidence showing that African American and Hispanic households are more often than not segregated into low-opportunity neighborhoods due to zoning and other land use policies. This means that white families are concentrated in the high-opportunity suburbs. Therefore, exclusionary zoning leads to racial segregation.

Sources:

Jason Reece, et al., People, Place, and Opportunity: Mapping Communities of Opportunity in Connecticut: A Report Commissioned By the Connecticut Fair Housing Center (Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, The Ohio State University, 2009)