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Land Use Law

Selected Works

Michael E Lewyn

Zoning

Articles 1 - 20 of 20

Full-Text Articles in Law

Midat Sodom And The Housing Affordability Crisis, Michael Lewyn Feb 2019

Midat Sodom And The Housing Affordability Crisis, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Ancient Jewish texts states that the city of Sodom was overthrown because of its hostility to hospitality. Today, American cities often limit new housing; is this policy analogous to midat Sodom (Hebrew for "the ways of Sodom")? What arguments justify these policies, and what counter-arguments are relevant to those arguments?

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Planetizen Blog Posts- First Half Of 2019, Michael Lewyn Dec 2018

Planetizen Blog Posts- First Half Of 2019, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Op-ed length articles on various land use-related issues.

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The Neighborhood Veto And Its Discontents, Michael Lewyn Feb 2018

The Neighborhood Veto And Its Discontents, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Discusses negative side effects of neighborhood input on land use decisions related to housing. In particular, my speech suggests that the "neighborhood veto" over rezonings increases housing supply by reducing housing prices, and makes development more car-oriented by reducing population density.

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Powerpoint- Setback Speech, Michael Lewyn Jun 2017

Powerpoint- Setback Speech, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Setback regulations often require that all buildings be a certain amount of feet (usually about 25-50 feet from the street).  As a result of these zoning rules, all destinations outside the most urban areas have to place either parking or useless green spaces between the street and a store, office building or residence.
 
I argue that these regulations make walking more difficult, for four reasons.  First, pedestrians have to waste time walking through these empty spaces.  Second, walking through a sea of parking is simply no fun.  Pedestrians tend to enjoy shade and a sense of enclosure, so they …

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2015 Cnu Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn Dec 2016

2015 Cnu Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

My blog posts at the Congress for New Urbanism (cnu.org) website, obtained at archive.org. Unfortunately, a few posts (mostly from May) still have not been found.

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Does The Threat Of Gentrification Justify Restrictive Zoning?, Michael Lewyn Dec 2016

Does The Threat Of Gentrification Justify Restrictive Zoning?, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Historically, progressives have opposed restrictive zoning, arguing that by restricting the housing supply to high-end housing, zoning reduces the supply of housing available to lower-income Americans. But recently, some progressives have suggested that new market-rate housing facilitates gentrification and displacement of lower-income renters. This article critically examines that theory.

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Planetizen Blog Posts September-December 2017, Michael Lewyn Dec 2016

Planetizen Blog Posts September-December 2017, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Blog posts related to public transit, housing costs, and other urban issues.

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2017 Market Urbanism Report Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn Dec 2016

2017 Market Urbanism Report Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

2017 posts on various urban issues (also available at https://marketurbanismreport.com/author/michael/ )

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The Roots Of Expensive Zoning, Michael Lewyn Dec 2015

The Roots Of Expensive Zoning, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Review of Zoning Rules, by William Fischel.

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2016 Market Urbanism Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn Dec 2015

2016 Market Urbanism Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Available at marketurbanism.com

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How Often Do Cities Mandate Smart Growth Or Green Building?, Michael Lewyn Mar 2015

How Often Do Cities Mandate Smart Growth Or Green Building?, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Much has been written about the role of government regulation in facilitating automobile-oriented sprawl. Zoning codes reduce walkability by artificially segregating housing from commerce, forcing businesses and multifamily landlords to surround their buildings with parking, and artificially reducing density. The “smart growth” movement seeks to reverse these policies, both through regulation and through more libertarian, deregulatory policies. The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent cities have in fact chosen the former path, and to discuss the possible side effects of prescriptive smart growth and green building regulations. In particular, this paper focuses on attempts to make …

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Smart Growth-Oriented Density And Parking Regulations, Michael Lewyn Feb 2015

Smart Growth-Oriented Density And Parking Regulations, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Many articles have been written about pro-sprawl land use regulation, such as minimum parking requirements. This speech, by contrast, focuses on the frequency of land use regulation designed to increase walkability- in particular, minimum density requirements and maximum parking requirements. I conclude that the first type of regulation is quite rare and usually very lenient. The second type of regulation is more frequent; however, the impact of maximum parking requirements is not yet clear.

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Against The Neighborhood Veto, Michael Lewyn Dec 2014

Against The Neighborhood Veto, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

American zoning often gives neighborhoods elective veto power over nearby real estate development. This “neighborhood veto” sometimes artificially reduces housing supply and urban density, thus making housing more expensive and making American cities more dependent on automobiles. This article criticizes the common arguments that neighborhood activists use to restrict development.

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Is An Apartment A Nuisance?, Michael Lewyn Dec 2014

Is An Apartment A Nuisance?, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

In an ongoing Texas lawsuit, some homeowners allege that a nearby apartment building will constitute a nuisance. This article asserts that courts should generally reject nuisance claims against multifamily housing, based on the public interest in favor of increased housing supply and infill development.

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Internally Buffered Districts: A New Technique To Make Zoning Less Exclusionary, William Leaf, Michael Lewyn Dec 2014

Internally Buffered Districts: A New Technique To Make Zoning Less Exclusionary, William Leaf, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Proposes creating a new kind of zone called an "internally buffered district." Within these zones, intensive land uses like stores and apartments are allowed, so long as the latter uses are physically separated from nearby residential districts. The article suggests that developers compensate homeowners for rezoning their property to the internally buffered classification, thus allowing for both more compact development and more protection of homeowners' interests.

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American Dreams, American Realities, Michael Lewyn Dec 2014

American Dreams, American Realities, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Review of Zoned In The USA, by Sonia Hirt.

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2014 Planetizen Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn Dec 2013

2014 Planetizen Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Blog posts on urban and suburban issues, available at planetizen.com

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Land Use Regulation: It Just Gets Worse, Michael Lewyn Dec 2011

Land Use Regulation: It Just Gets Worse, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Some commentators treat suburban sprawl (by which I mean automobile-dependent land development) as the result of the free market at work. This article reviews City Rules, by urban planning professor Emily Talen. In this book, Talen shows not only how zoning and similar land use regulations generate automobile-dependent suburban sprawl, but also how these regulations have become stricter, more pro-sprawl, and more complex over time. Talen proposes to reform these regulations through municipal codes that promote more walkable, less automobile-dependent development.

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2010 Planetizen Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn Dec 2009

2010 Planetizen Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Planetizen blog posts on urban and suburban issues.

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2008-09 Cnu Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn Dec 2007

2008-09 Cnu Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Blog posts from the now-defunct CNU blog

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