Fall 2021 Research Colloquium
Zoning and Housing Supply
How Land Use Laws Impact Housing
Noah Dankner under supervision of Dr. Crystal Taylor.
Zoning laws are government
regulations governing land use.
Restrictive zoning laws may be
suppressing housing availability
and occupancy.
With the Supreme Court legally
permitting zoning via Euclid v. Ambler
Realty Co. (1926), cities were
permitted to designate land uses.1
Zoning laws are meant to keep
residences, businesses, and
factories separated. Aggressive
zoning could be impeding the
physical supply of housing units.
Therefore, some cities are using
looser “mixed-use” zoning codes,
which permit putting residential and
commercial uses or commercial and
industrial uses on the same parcel of
land or in the same area.2
These mixed-use codes offer greater
flexibility for cities in how they
develop, allowing for more robust
routes to dealing with changes.
Miami
Miami, Florida, experimented with
this idea and in 2009 adopted a new
zoning code called Miami 21.3 Miami
21 is a “form based transect system,”
which means buildings are put
together by the number of users and
their aesthetics.4 This code turned
traditional zoning logic on its head,
throwing out land use restrictions
and, instead, only requiring similar
aesthetics and volume of people
using the buildings.
DeVoe L. Moore Center at
Florida State University
Table 1: Coral Way, Miami, Florida
Variables
Occupied Housing Units
Available Housing Units
Total Housing Units
Population
Median Home Value of Owner-Occupied Units
*95 confidence level used
When comparing housing availability
and occupancy in the years 2000 and
2015, Coral Way, Miami saw massive
increases. Miami 21 increased home
values for property owners living on
their property. Table 1 shows these
statistical changes and explains that
Coral Way, Miami’s housing boon is
correlated with the looser Miami 21
zoning code. This is important
because it means that even if Miami
21 itself didn’t cause the increase in
housing, something related to Miami
21 did.
With Florida gaining a few hundred
thousand residents during the
COVID-19 pandemic,5 Floridian cities
are going to need good zoning
policies to absorb this sharp influx.
Houston
There are mountains of research References
focused on zoning laws. Much
research is focused on Houston,
Texas, since Houston doesn’t have a
zoning code.6 Instead, Houston opts
for private property and private
association agreements. Indeed,
Houston behaves like a city with
zoning even without being zoned.
Houston is relevant to this research
Significance
.046*
.001*
.001*
.030*
.000*
because studies must have control
groups. Houston’s lack of a zoning
code made it the ideal control group.
Lastly and interestingly, Houston has
a long history of outright rejecting
zoning. The city defeated referenda
to enact zoning five times in 100
years. Indeed, the city has a strong
belief in private property rights.6
Policy Recommendation
No two cities are identical, and no
two cities should take identical
approaches to zoning. However,
localities interested in dealing with
sudden or predicted population
increases should consider creating a
looser zoning code. Miami 21 and
other form based transect codes are
good places to start.