Key to the City, page 21
63 a special committee convened by the city council: City of Baltimore Joint Special Committee, “Report of the Board of Engineers Upon Changing the Course of Jones’ Falls with a View to Prevent Inundations” (1868), 33.
64 banning them altogether: See Schad v. Borough of Mount Ephraim, 452 U.S. 61 (1981), holding unconstitutional a zoning law excluding live entertainment, including “non-obscene” nude dancing.
65 “sexually explicit materials”: Baltimore Zoning Ordinance § 1-302(i)(1).
65 adult use overlay district: Baltimore, MD, Zoning Map (2023). The adult use overlay district is one of nine used overlays in the C-5 district, each with different rules.
65 extra requirements, like design review: Baltimore Zoning Ordinance §§ 4-405(a)(6)-(7).
65 exemption from the code’s parking mandates: Baltimore Zoning Ordinance § 10-503(a).
65 To establish an adult use: Baltimore Zoning Ordinance § 12-1204(b).
65 so long as they make their case: Austin Code § 25-2-801. Austin uses the term “churches” instead of listing other types of religious buildings or using the nondenominational terms “religious institutions” or “houses of worship.”
65 Hartford’s code stipulates they may be: Hartford Zoning Regulations § 3.3.6.E.(1): the placement of an “adult establishment” within 1,000 feet of any building or lot “used for any household living [residential] use; religious institution, medical clinic, medical office, hospital, school, facility attended by persons under the age of 18 (including but not limited to school programs, children’s museums, camps, and athletic leagues), park, or other adult establishment.”
65 a statewide thousand-foot-radius dispersion: N.J. Rev. Stat. § 2C:34-7.
65 a 1976 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court: Young v. American Mini Theaters, Inc., 427 U.S. 60 (1976).
66 upheld a Renton, Washington, dispersion requirement: City of Renton v. Theaters, Inc., 475 U.S. 41 (1986).
66 a 1991 study done in Garden Grove: Richard McCleary and James W. Meeker, “Final Report to the City of Garden Grove: The Relationship Between Crime and Adult Business Operations on Garden Grove Boulevard,” October 23, 1991.
66 crime rises in a statistically significant manner: McCleary and Meeker, “Final Report to the City of Garden Grove,” section IV, page 4.
66 regulations dispersing “adult entertainment businesses”: Garden Grove Code § 9.16.020.070.
67 a 1986 study of adult-oriented businesses: City of Austin Office of Land Development Services, “Report on Adult Oriented Businesses in Austin,” May 19, 1986.
67 either a dispersal or a concentration approach: See Young v. American Mini Theaters, Inc.: “It is not our function to appraise the wisdom of its [Detroit’s] decision to require adult theaters to be separated rather than concentrated in the same areas.”
68 behaviors and practices: Party buses and “pedal taverns” carrying drunken revelers topped his list of initial priorities, not zoning concerns.
Chapter 5: Making It Home
72 an excellent location: West U is one of just three independent municipalities “inside the Loop” surrounded by Houston. The other two are Southside Place and Bellaire.
72 conceived as a suburb of country homes: June A. Begeman, Stepping Back in Time, History of West University Place (Houston: D. Armstrong, 1999), 23–24, describing the area as “a low-lying, poorly drained swamp … streets and yards [flooded] each time there was a heavy rain.… Snakes floated in with the floods.”
73 pool their resources to pay for better flood infrastructure: Begeman, Stepping Back, 25–27, documenting two incorporation votes taking place in 1923 and 1924.
73 first land use ordinance: West U adopted Ordinance #36, restricting disorderly and bawdy houses, in 1929 and Ordinance #44, restricting fowl, in 1931. See Begeman, Stepping Back, 54, explaining these and other early ordinances. Chapter 7 explains that many American cities banned agricultural uses during that period. In 2003, the city’s code was amended with a provision that allows up to twelve fowl. City of West U., Tex., Ordinance § 14-8.
73 adopted a zoning code: Courts heard several early challenges to the city’s zoning code. While two decisions limited the applicability of the code, none resulted in a complete rejection of the code. See, e.g., City of West University Place v. Ellis, 134 Tex. 222 (S.W.2d 1940), holding a two-classification zoning ordinance invalid when applied to business owner’s proposed commercial use; West University Place v. Martin, 113 S.W.2d 295 (Tex. Civ. App. Ct. 1938), cause dismissed, 132 Tex. 354 (S.W.2d 1939), invalidating incorporation of fire prevention rules.
73 its population peaking: U.S. Census Bureau, 1950 Census of Population, September 14, 1950, documenting 17,053 people living in West University Place.
73 5,200 homes: Begeman, Stepping Back, 53.
73 among the fastest-growing cities: The population increase can also be attributed, in part, to the city’s annexation of extraterritorial land to expand its borders. Unlike many East Coast cities, Houston remains surrounded by land not incorporated into any municipality. City government has powers granted by the legislature to overtake unincorporated areas and, in some instances, incorporated areas belonging to another municipality. But Houston’s growth does not exclusively result from its outward sprawl; it gains more through in-migration within its existing borders.
73 land development rules are also found in zoning: See, e.g., Teddy M. Kapur, “Land Use Regulation in Houston Contradicts the City’s Free Market Reputation,” Environmental Law Reporter News & Analysis 34 (2004). See also Bernard H. Siegan, “Non-Zoning in Houston,” Journal of Law & Economics 13, no. 1 (1970), documenting minimum lot sizes at the time of 5,000 square feet for sewered lots and 7,000 square feet for nonsewered lots, along with 25-foot front setbacks for single-family dwellings, and 20-foot front and 10-foot side setbacks for apartment buildings, and off-street parking requirements for housing, 76–77.
73 subdivision ordinance: Houston Code ch. 42 (“Subdivisions, Developments, and Platting”); § 42-186 (requiring two parking spaces for most single-family dwellings).
74 these ordinances are not zoning: Powell v. City of Houston, 628 S.W.3d 838 (Tex. 2021). In 2021, two disgruntled Houston homeowners wishing to avoid having to comply with the historic district ordinance argued before the court that the city’s preservation ordinance constituted zoning in disguise, and that the city’s adoption process for the preservation ordinance failed to comply with legal requirements to adopt a zoning ordinance. (Full disclosure: I wrote an amicus brief supporting the city, differentiating the preservation ordinance from zoning. Brief for Historic Preservation Organizations and Legal Scholars as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents, Powell v. City of Houston, 628 S.W.3d 838 [Tex. 2021].) The court rejected the homeowners’ claim. To paraphrase the ruling: Houston’s land use rules do not divide the whole city into districts and regulate land uses and land development holistically, and thus Houston lacks zoning as the term is normally understood.
74 wealthier homeowners who historically have: William A. Fischel, The Homevoter Hypothesis: How Home Values Influence Local Government Taxation, School Finance, and Land Use Policies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005).
74 80 percent of the state’s residential land: National Zoning Atlas, “Connecticut Zoning Atlas,” www.zoningatlas.org/connecticut.
74 only 15 percent of the state’s buildable land: National Zoning Atlas, “New Hampshire Zoning Atlas,” www.zoningatlas.org/new-hampshire. The lots counted in the 15 percent figure are those allowed to have less than two hundred feet frontage, defined as the length of land abutting the street. See also Jason Sorens, “The New Hampshire Zoning Atlas” (working paper, American Institute for Economic Research, 2023), for a description of methodology in comparison to the methods used on the Connecticut Zoning Atlas.
74 if Connecticut’s lot sizes were reduced by half: Jae-Hee Song, “The Effect of Residential Housing in U.S. Markets” (working paper, 2021) .
75 even moderate lot-size mandates resulted in underproduction: M. Nolan Gray and Salim Furth, “Do Minimum Lot-Size Regulations Limit Housing Supply in Texas?,” Mercatus Center at George Mason University (2019).
75 there is more demand for small lots: Paul D. Gottlieb et al., “Determinants of Local Housing Growth in a Multi-Jurisdictional Region, Along with a Test for Nonmarket Zoning,” Journal of Housing Economics 21, no. 4 (2012).
75 required a minimum size: Siegan, “Non-Zoning in Houston.”
75 city has reduced those mandates: Houston Code §§ 42-181–42-184.
75 minimum lot-size change alone significantly increased: M. Nolan Gray and Adam A. Millsap, “Subdividing the Unzoned City: An Analysis of the Causes and Effects of Houston’s 1998 Subdivision Reform,” Journal of Planning Education and Research 43, no. 4 (2020).
75 Houston has issued more permits: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, State of the Cities Data Systems.
76 the resulting units were affordable: Jake Wegmann, Aabiya Noman Baqai, and Josh Conrad, “Here Come the Tall Skinny Houses: Assessing Single-Family to Townhouse Redevelopment in Houston, 2007–2020,” Cityscape 25, no. 2 (2023), referring to households at 105 percent area median income.
76 for every additional acre: Glaeser and Ward, “The Causes and Consequences of Land Use Regulation,” 273.
76 almost three times the number of housing units: In 2021, Houston (2.3 million people) issued permits for 15,429 housing units, while New York City (8.5 million people) issued permits for 19,923 units. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, State of the Cities Data Systems, https://socds.huduser.gov/permits/.
76 “more than twice as well”: Michael Kimmelman, “How Houston Moved 25,000 People from the Streets into Homes of Their Own,” New York Times, June 14, 2022.
76 supply of housing: See, e.g., Edward L. Glaeser and Bryce A. Ward, “The Causes and Consequences of Land Use Regulation: Evidence from Greater Boston,” Journal of Urban Economics 65, no. 3 (2009); Alex Horowitz and Ryan Canavan, “More Flexible Zoning Helps Contain Rising Rents,” Pew Charitable Trusts, April 17, 2023, showing zoning changes in Minneapolis, New Rochelle, Portland (Oregon), and Tysons (Virginia) have resulted in an increase in market-rate housing whose existence has curtailed rent growth to far less than the 31 percent rent growth across the country between 2017 and 2023.
76 minimum lot-size requirements of 8,250 square feet: West University Place, TX, Zoning Ordinance, tbl. 5-1.
76 prohibits multifamily housing: All forty-eight building permits issued in 2021 by the municipality were for single-family homes. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, State of the Cities Data Systems.
77 constraints dampen production: Edward L. Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko, “The Impact of Building Restrictions on Housing Affordability,” FRBNY Economic Policy Review 9, no. 2 (June 2003); Edward L. Glaeser, Joseph Gyourko, and Raven Saks, “Why Is Manhattan So Expensive? Regulation and the Rise in Housing Prices,” Journal of Law & Economics 48, no. 2 (2005); Keith R. Ihlanfeldt, “The Effect of Land Use Regulation on Housing and Land Prices,” Journal of Urban Economics 61, no. 3 (2007); John M. Quigley and Steven Raphael, “Regulation and the High Cost of Housing in California,” American Economic Review 95, no. 2 (2005).
77 its comprehensive plan: City of West University Place, Comprehensive Plan (2017).
77 city has achieved this narrow goal: A 1989 study of 1978 single-family home prices in West University Place, another independent city within Houston with zoning (Bellaire), and the City of Houston revealed that buyers paid 7 percent more for houses with zoning and deed restrictions. Janet Furman Speyrer, “The Effect of Land-Use Restrictions on Market Values of Single-Family Homes in Houston,” Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics 2, no. 2 (1989). The study included 230 home sales and covered a three-mile radius. That said, the study did not control for neighborhood quality or proximity to undesirable uses.
77 for just $60,000: I looked at realtor.com in February 2024 for condominiums in their complex.
78 problematic aspects of Houston’s anarchic siting procedures: Robert D. Bullard, Invisible Houston: The Black Experience in Boom and Bust (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000); Robert D. Bullard, Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality (Boulder: Westview Press 1990).
79 that 25 percent of racial segregation: Jonathan T. Rothwell, “Racial Enclaves and Density Zoning: The Institutionalized Segregation of Racial Minorities in the United States,” American Law & Economics Review 13, no. 1 (2011).
79 Connecticut suburbs and towns had more zoning constraints: Yonah Freemark, Lydia Lo, and Sara C. Bronin, “Bringing Zoning into Focus,” Urban Institute Report, June 2023.
79 for every year a low-income child: Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren, “The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility I: Childhood Exposure Effects,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 133, no. 3 (2018), analyzing the trajectories of children growing up in families at the 25th percentile of the income distribution.
80 one of the most segregated: John R. Logan and Brian J. Stults, “Metropolitan Segregation: No Breakthrough in Sight” (working paper, U.S. Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies, 2022).
80 This segregation costs an estimated: Metropolitan Planning Council, “The Cost of Segregation,” 2017.
80 residential segregation in the 209 largest cities: Stephen Menendian, Samir Gambhir, and Arthur Gailes, “The Roots of Structural Racism Project: Twenty-First Century Racial Residential Segregation in the United States,” Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, June 30, 2021.
80 rushed to record: University of Minneapolis, Mapping Prejudice Project, https://mappingprejudice.umn.edu.
81 highest Black-White homeownership gap: Jung Hyun Choi et al., “Explaining the Black-White Homeownership Gap: A Closer Look at Disparities Across Local Markets,” Urban Institute, 2019.
81 legislative mandate that requires the city: Minn. Stat. Ann. § 473.864.
82 the final plan: City of Minneapolis Department of Community Planning and Economic Development, Minneapolis 2040—The City’s Comprehensive Plan (2020).
82 eliminate single-family zoning: Minneapolis, MN, Code of Ordinances § 546.30 (hereinafter “Minneapolis Code”).
82 Minneapolis a wild outlier within the Twin Cities metro: Mary Jo Webster and Michael Corey, “How Twin Cities Housing Rules Keep the Metro Segregated,” Star Tribune, August 7, 2021.
82 YIMBY-style change requires three groups: Hearing on Housing Supply and Innovation Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development, 118th Cong. D864 (2023) (statement of Janne Flisrand on behalf of Neighbors for More Neighbors).
82 a mere seventy-six units: Alex Schieferdecker, “The Reality and Myth of the Minneapolis 2040,” streets.mn (blog), June 20, 2022.
83 a “floor-to-area ratio”: Minneapolis Code § 535.90(a).
83 For accessory apartments: Minneapolis Code §§ 537.60, 537.110.
83 code also sets design standards: Minneapolis Code § 537.110(6)e.
83 under-the-radar restrictions: Sara C. Bronin, “Zoning by a Thousand Cuts,” Pepperdine Law Review 50 (2023).
83 subject to so many hidden requirements: Bronin, “Zoning by a Thousand Cuts,” 755–57.
83 94 percent of Connecticut districts: Bronin, “Zoning by a Thousand Cuts,” 763.
83 may also introduce bias: Most people who speak and participate in land use meetings in Massachusetts are White, male, older homeowners. Katherine Levine Einstein, David Glick, and Maxwell Palmer, Neighborhood Defenders: Participatory Politics and America’s Housing Crisis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).
83 puts the public participation at the wrong time: Anika Singh Lemar, “Overparticipation: Designing Effective Land Use Public Processes,” Fordham Law Review 90, no. 3 (2021).
84 “segregation of the affluent”: Michael C. Lens and Paavo Monkkonen, “Do Strict Land Use Regulations Make Metropolitan Areas More Segregated by Income?,” Journal of the American Planning Association 82, no. 1 (2016): 12: “Particular types of regulation, such as density restrictions, more independent reviews for project approval and zoning changes, and a greater level of involvement by local government and citizenry in the permitting process are significantly associated with segregation overall and of the affluent, specifically when we control for a range of metropolitan areas characteristics.”
