Zoning Rules!: The Economics of Land Use Regulation

Category: Social Sciences
Author: William A. Fischel
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by jseliger   2019-08-01
Why do we have clearly divided zoned areas for work and residential again? What era did that start?

If you really, really want to know: https://www.amazon.com/Zoning-Rules-Economics-Land-Regulatio...

by moto123456789   2019-07-21

For transportation, look for the work of:

  • Mike Manville
  • Jonathan Levine (he has a pretty big project coming out in 2019)

For land use look at works by:

  • Sonia Hirt
  • William Fischel, especially The Economics of Land Use Regulation. This is a great book, although Fischel is a bit too much of a proselytizer of single family home ownership for me.

I have also just recently come across the blog of Minneapolis planning commissioner Nick Magrino, but his head seems to be in the right place.

Be wary of any bullshit about the future being in autonomous vehicles.

by yonran   2019-07-21

William Fischel describes how covenants are complementary to zoning in Zoning Rules!: “For a homeowner to alter the conditions of the covenant to allow, say, a home business office, would normally require unanimous written consent of all those subject to the covenant.” By contrast, changing the zoning only requires a majority of citizen residents, not unanimity of property owners.

It’s good that California law (Gov. Code 12956.2) allows owners to unilaterally strike exclusionary language from their deed. But other exclusionary language that doesn’t happen to discriminate against protected classes remains very difficult to modify. I hope California can one day adopt policies that allow a city to strike other exclusionary language (such as prohibitions on apartments or multiple families living on one lot) without requiring unanimity from the HOA.