HOW ZONING SHAPES COMMUNITIES

THE GOOD, BAD AND HOPEFUL ASPECTS 

OF THE CENTURY-OLD TOOL THAT DETERMINES

EVERYTHING ABOUT THE PLACES WE LIVE, WORK AND PLAY

In 1910, Baltimore passed racial segregation laws, prohibiting Black people from moving into white-majority areas and vice-versa. 

Other cities passed similar ordinances until 1917, when the practice of racial zoning was declared unconstitutional.

But exclusionary zoning continued class and other segregation. 

Berkeley, California’s Elmwood neighborhood adopted single-family zoning, “effectively setting up the area to exclude lower-income households into the present day,” according to Planetizen.

David Morley, AICP, American Planning Association’s research program and QA manager, further explains zoning as the tool that drives everything about your quality of life, but didn’t exist for all of civilized time till the early 20th century.

Morley said historians generally traced zoning back to keepers of posh shops on New York City’s Fifth Avenue, who feared garment manufacturers and their employees would ruin the commercial district’s exclusive experience. 

The city’s zoning code that went into effect was quickly copied by cities around the United States.