Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Zoning Rules!: The Economics of Land Use Regulation” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Zoning Rules!: The Economics of Land Use Regulation

William A. Fischel

4.21 · Rating details · 33 ratings · 4 reviews

Once dismissed by economists as a paper tiger, municipal zoning is now regarded as a major influence on the development of American cities. Zoning Rules! explores the behavioral basis as well as the economic effects of local government land use regulation. This requires not just an economic model of how zoning works but a deeper understanding of the social, political, and ...more

Get A Copy

Kindle Edition, 432 pages

Published July 7th 2015 by Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Zoning Rules!, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Zoning Rules!

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.21 ·

Rating details

· 33 ratings · 4 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Zoning Rules!: The Economics of Land Use Regulation

Sep 21, 2015 Michael Lewyn added it

Explains the history of zoning, why it became popular, and why it has become more restrictive over time.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 25, 2018 Frank Stein rated it it was amazing

Although this book is often, and self-admittedly, repetitive of his early works, as usual Fischel is an indubitably sharp and witty writer, who leads his readers through the thickets of contemporary law and economics relating to land with panache.

One of the main insights of this book is that much of land use regulation is "demand driven" and not "supply driven." While historians tend to focus on the major planning advocates and judges, like Edward Bassett and Justice George Sutherland, in Although this book is often, and self-admittedly, repetitive of his early works, as usual Fischel is an indubitably sharp and witty writer, who leads his readers through the thickets of contemporary law and economics relating to land with panache.

One of the main insights of this book is that much of land use regulation is "demand driven" and not "supply driven." While historians tend to focus on the major planning advocates and judges, like Edward Bassett and Justice George Sutherland, in reality city planning and zoning emerged in hundreds of different cities beginning in the nineteen teens, and paid little heed to planners or jurists. Although planners long lamented "grandfathering" non-conforming uses, cities ignored them and kept them in place. When a New Jersey court declared zoning a taking of property in 1927, the voters passed a constitutional amendment the same year legalizing the practice, and a similar reaction against a court ruling happened in Georgia. In all of these cases, it was millions of different people, and not conspiracies from on-high, that created our modern zoning system in the Progressive Era. Fischel argues that the footloose truck caused residential suburbs to push zoning and resist annexation to keep out unwanted industrial uses. This had little to do with race, as mixed race and purely white areas embraced zoning similarly, but everything to do with protecting property values.

Fischel also argues that the "Quiet Revolution" of growth management since 1970 is a result of a combination of the increase in automobile ownership from 59% in 1950 to 82% in 1970, bringing more poor residents to outlying areas, an increase in land values caused by inflation, along with the creation of new organizations emerging from the anti-highway revolt and environmental movements. These new groups succeeded in using courts to fight development, and also succeeded in creating "double veto" regional bodies that could foil most new development, especially on rivers and along the coasts, and most especially in California (such as the 1972 referendum for the California Coastal Commission). Instead of "fiscal zoning," where cities tried to attract the right mix of land-uses to protect land that paid property taxes, many suburbs in the 197s0 became completely opposed to any additional use, vastly driving up land prices, while property taxes declined as a proportion of revenue.

There are dozens of little stories and insights here, from the demand curve of monopolistic suburbs, to the problems with equitable solutions to zonings takings, and a few sensible, minor solutions for reform (scale back the imputed rent subsidy to homeowners; allow courts to act more like Pennsylvania's, to force injunctions for excessive zoning if not reformed). The book should be read by anyone and everyone concerned with local politics and housing issues in America. ...more

flag Like · see review

Feb 03, 2019 Andrew rated it really liked it

This was a difficult book to rate. I found it very informative but quite dense and occasionally dry. I came away with a more nuanced understanding of the causes of some of the development problems the author addresses but was disappointed by the author’s proposed solutions.

flag Like · see review

Jan 23, 2016 Du rated it really liked it

Shelves: planning

Clearly an academic book, but here that works really well. I liked the focus and the drive of the narrative, keeping the idea that not all zoning is for land use regulatory impact, that there are other impacts and reasons to create and update zoning in a community, and that some of those impacts are economic for the community, both via tax revenue and general economic development.

flag Like · see review