This piece is part of our series, Policy Actions for Racial Equity (PARE), which explores the many ways housing policies contribute to racial disparities in our country.

Federal, state, and local governments have developed programs and policies in recent years to address the nation’s affordable housing crisis, creating innovative and streamlined methods to build more housing. Zoning reform is a powerful tactic that state and local leaders can use to remove restrictive and outdated land use laws and expand access to more housing options that communities across the country desperately need.  

While the housing crisis is complex and requires a combination of solutions, communities from Cincinnati to Houston are already paving the way for more housing and opportunity through zoning reform. With time and support from the federal government to urge localities to push for these changes, zoning reform can make a significant difference in expanding the supply of accessible and affordable housing opportunities available for households of color and other socially and economically disadvantaged people across the country.

A History of Limiting Access to Housing

The nation’s overarching model of local zoning dates back to the 1910s and has deep connections to various tools that developers, real estate agents, and local policymakers used to limit access to housing and land for people of color as well as other ethnic and religious minorities. Zoning laws were originally created to regulate the types, forms, uses, and locations of buildings allowed in cities across the U.S. Though some early zoning laws also prohibited members of specific races or ethnic groups from living in designated locations, the Supreme Court deemed such practices unconstitutional in 1917. 

Nonetheless, history has shown that many localities either ignored this ruling, used other forms of exclusionary zoning and legalized segregation to disadvantage specific racial and ethnic communities at different places and times, or enforced residential segregation through extra-judicial means for decades. While the 1968 Fair Housing Act and other fair housing policies eventually outlawed housing discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, familial status, sex, and disability, the impacts of early zoning practices are still etched in the makeup of communities today.

Why Zoning Reform is Important

Movements advocating for zoning reform and an end to exclusionary zoning practices have existed for decades and are often born out of the desire to undo the harm that past zoning policies have caused for households of color, including widening the racial wealth and homeownership gaps, concentrating poverty in communities of color, and leading to displacement. More recently, localities across the country have been participating in extensive processes to update their zoning laws for an overall increase in housing supply to help address the nation’s housing shortage. 

Zoning reforms that are being implemented to expand housing supply include changing rules that only allow single-family properties on most residential land, adjusting parking minimum requirements, minimizing lot size requirements to ease the development of missing middle housing types, permitting accessory dwelling units, and modifying rules to encourage adaptive reuse and conversion projects. 

Some localities have taken it a step further by ensuring that, in the process of passing legislation to update their zoning and land use regulations, they explicitly address historic policies that disadvantaged households of color. These efforts acknowledge the exclusionary effect of policies that restrict the type, size, and characteristics of homes that can be built in some communities and look to counter those impacts by allowing for a wider range of housing options. Such changes not only expand the amount of housing available in a community but can also broaden and diversify housing opportunities for residents with different financial, family, and tenure needs, thus providing more equal access for all. 

Localities Reforming Laws to Create Opportunity

Local governments have more power than the federal government to directly influence efforts to increase housing supply through zoning reform. Several localities nationwide have effectively used this power to change their housing landscape.

• Cincinnati, Ohio explored its housing policy history, finding that zoning was used as a tool for segregation, which in turn created a city with wide income gaps between neighborhoods and where affordable housing is scarce and complicated to develop. Through community engagement activities in neighborhoods across the city, extensive data collection, and information gathering about zoning and land use policies across the country, Cincinnati’s City Council passed its Connected Communities policy in June of 2024. The policy is a set of zoning and land use reforms designed to increase housing production; create affordable rental and homeownership opportunities for households at a variety of income levels; and promote an accessible, diverse, and healthy environment for all Cincinnatians.
• In Alexandria, Virginia, stakeholders and local policymakers took a similar approach as Cincinnati on the road to approving their Zoning for Housing reforms. These reforms, which were passed in November 2023, were guided by Housing for All, an equity component of the zoning proposal that was created to help amplify the city’s understanding of the impacts of past discriminatory housing policies and how new policies could ensure that housing opportunities are expanded for socially and economically disadvantaged households. The Housing for All initiative culminated in a set of learning materials to facilitate the housing education city officials and community members needed to make essential zoning changes, such as allowing two-to-four-unit buildings in single-family zones, removing minimum lot size requirements for multi-unit properties, and limiting density restrictions across the city.
• Houston’s Livable Places Initiative was launched in 2020 with a focus on updating the City’s land use laws to increase the development of accessible and affordable rental and homeownership properties, while maintaining a diverse, inclusive, and walkable community. The city’s prioritization of equity led to the November 2023 passage of zoning rules that extended the ability to develop accessory dwelling units, multi-unit residential or missing middle housing, properties on smaller lots, and court-yard styles homes. 

Every Zoning Reform Effort Matters

While not every city is leading their zoning reform efforts with equity or a historical deep dive into the restrictions and difficulties that existing zoning codes have brought to specific racial and ethnic communities at different times in their pasts, their work still expands housing choice for households that were previously excluded from fair housing access. The passage of new zoning laws in other cities across the country, such as the HOME Act in Burlington, VT, the Charlottesville, VA Development Code, the Massachusetts MBTA Communities Law, and Colorado’s recent series of land use reforms, are all crucial for addressing the exclusionary practices of the past. 

It will not be easy for local policymakers to undo over a century’s worth of zoning practices that disadvantaged generations of households. However, every local effort to adjust policies and create new ones that open doors for more people of color can make a difference in expanding the supply of accessible and affordable housing opportunities.

We encourage all who believe in the need to create a just society to read, discuss, and share the PARE blog series as we learn and act to address the impacts of housing policies on racial equity in America. We also invite you to join us in this conversation, by suggesting additional topics and sharing resources for how we can advocate for greater racial equity. If you’d like to offer feedback on our body of work, please reach out to the Public Policy team. You can also subscribe to our daily and bi-weekly policy newsletters for more information on Enterprise’s federal, state, and local policy advocacy and racial equity work.