Law Commons^™

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 …

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.