Touring Hartford, Connecticut's Upper Albany neighborhood with a resident on a sweltering July day in 2014, Sara Bronin, then chair of the city's planning and zoning commission, paused at a Popeyes restaurant's unshaded parking lot, in an area permeated by greasy fumes.
It was one of many fast food establishments, gas stations, car washes and strip malls cluttering Albany Avenue, where ornate three- and four-story brick and wood homes had stood in more prosperous times. A mile south, a strip mall offered a view across the street of the Victorian Gothic home Mark Twain had built and lived in more than a century earlier.
The changes in the city since the early 20th century - losing pieces of its history to suburban-style development - were not inevitable, Bronin writes in a new book, "Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World."
Rather, amid white flight and transformations in technology and industry, zoning laws were amended in the 1950s and '60s to favor out-of-town commuters, then left unchanged for decades, said Bronin, professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP), and in the Paul Rubacha Department of Real Estate in AAP and the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.
Problematic zoning codes - sometimes including explicitly discriminatory provisions - have abounded across the country. But Hartford, where Bronin led an overhaul of zoning codes, and which inspired her launch of the National Zoning Altas, is also an example of zoning's potential to improve an area's quality of life.
"Done wrong, zoning can yoke us to past mistakes, acting as an invisible drag on our aspirations," writes Bronin, who is also an associate member of the Cornell Law School faculty and director of the Legal Constructs Lab. "But done right, zoning can be a revolutionary vehicle for transforming place. Properly wielded, the zoning power can give us the built environments that we yearn for and deserve."
Bronin discussed her book with the Chronicle.
Question: When and why did zoning become so prominent in the U.S.?
Answer: About a century ago. The origin story of zoning is complicated, but the very simplified version is that it emerged to allow local leaders to separate land uses (residential from industrial structures, for example). We also know that it was used (and is still used) to separate people from each other. New York City's 1916 ordinance is recognized as the first zoning code, with a text identifying the uses and types of developments that are allowed in each zoning district, and a map locating all of those districts. In the 1920s, the federal government got involved, developing a model statute that all 50 state legislatures adopted, which expressly authorized local governments to engage in zoning. After that, we saw thousands of zoning codes pop up in cities, towns, villages and counties all over the country.
Q: Most people don't follow their local planning and zoning board closely. Should they?
A: Absolutely. Zoning shapes most of what gets built in this country. But it's so complicated and technical that few want to engage with it. I wrote this book to help people understand how zoning works so they can better engage. Beyond just siting residences and offices, zoning can play a role in facilitating everything from urban agriculture to streetscape design to stormwater management to healthy nightlife.
Q: You grew up in Houston, the only large U.S. city without zoning. Might that be a better approach?
A: Ah, Houston … . Some commentators have observed that Houston's lack of regulation has achieved the laudable goal of reducing the cost of developing housing. While that may well be true, in the book I argue that Houston's lawlessness has brought other, far more negative consequences. Just as one example, across the street from the apartment building where I spent the first six years of my life is a gas station, self-storage facility, nightclub and strip mall. Not exactly healthy or safe for a kid.
Q: Is there a model zoning code, or one key reform, that would benefit most of the country?
A: We need to dramatically simplify zoning. Most codes hover between 100 and 200 pages. The 1916 New York City ordinance, originally 13 pages long, now runs over 2,000. In Hartford, we went the other direction, reducing the use table (which sets out all of the allowable uses in each district) from 61 pages to three. Of course, simplifying zoning must go deeper than trimming word counts. Planners should work to more clearly organize the text, reduce jargon, improve onerous processes and update maps.
Q: How might the National Zoning Atlas help?
A: The National Zoning Atlas (NZA) is an online, interactive map that shows how more than 5,000 communities across the country zone. I created it in 2020 to inform zoning reform efforts and to serve as the basis for research and analysis. The public can use it to figure out whether their community allows for single-family housing, multifamily housing, accessory dwelling units and more. I only touch on the NZA briefly in "Key to the City." Maybe I'll write a sequel that delves more deeply into the trends and opportunities NZA analysts are seeing.
Q: Why are you optimistic that zoning can be a force for good?
A: Because I have the experience that shows that once people understand what zoning is and does, they will change it. That was true in Hartford, where we adopted a complete code overhaul unanimously in one night. That was true in Connecticut, where legislators marshaled the courage to take the first step in passing statewide zoning reform. And it is true nationally right now, where we are in the midst of important and long-overdue conversations about the way zoning shapes our world.
I hope that "Key to the City" helps to inform conversations at every level, because people deserve to have communities that are sustainable, equitable, thriving and fulfilling. And zoning can and should play a huge part in that.
