Subtheme: Upzoning

One way to jumpstart housing production is zoning reform or upzoning. Zoning is the set of municipal regulations that determines what kind of buildings can be built where. But years of exclusionary zoning practices have led to towns that favor large, costly, single-family residences which end up unaffordable for people with lower–and even moderate–incomes. To produce more housing, it will be necessary to reform zoning to allow for increased housing density, smaller homes, mixed-use zoning, and inclusionary zoning for the creation of affordable housing for low- to moderate-income people.

For this research subtheme, students can help demonstrate how restrictive current zoning practices are by depicting discrepancies between what is already built and what is allowed by zoning to be built. Looking comparatively across cities and towns in Boston, which cities have the most restrictive zoning? What percentage of existing properties couldn’t be built today? How can we make data-driven arguments to defeat some of the common pushbacks for zoning reform, like “we want to preserve the historical character of the neighborhood” or “housing for school age children will be a drain on town resources”?

Background Reading

  1. Houses are too expensive. Apartments are too small. Is this a fix? (Washington Post) – A data comic (!!) that explains exclusionary zoning in the US and outlines possible solutions.
  2. The illegal city of Somerville (City Observatory) – Discusses zoning in Somerville, including a laughable study by the city itself that showed that only 22 of the existing buildings would be permissible by today’s zoning laws. Students could undertake an analysis like this across several cities and towns in Metro Boston.
  3. Exclusionary by Design: An Investigation of Zoning’s Use as a Tool of Race, Class, and Family Exclusion in Boston’s Suburbs, 1920 to Today – A video as well as a report that goes through the history of exclusionary zoning practices in Boston.
  4. The Waning Influence Of Housing Production On Public School Enrollment– MAPC did this analysis to investigate the commonly held assumption that building housing for families with schoolage children will result in increased school enrollment (and therefore a drain on town resources). In both 2017 and 2024, they found no association between increased housing unit development and school enrollment.

Datasets for the Final Project

  1. Dataset of Metro Boston municipalities with single family zoning vs other housing zoning – The most restrictive form of zoning is single family zoning that doesn’t permit other forms of housing. Using this dataset you can compare which towns have the highest rates of this exclusionary zoning. Also included is demographic data about who lives in the single-family zoned areas vs who lives in the other housing zones.
  2. Metro Boston parcel data with zoning compliance flags – All Metro Boston properties with three columns added. Using these you will be able to see how m
    1. zoned_density – what unit density is allowed in this parcel?
    2. actual_density – what is the density (how many units) of what is built on this parcel?
    3. complies_with_zoning – does what is built on the parcel comply with the zoning?
  3. Metro Boston zoning compliance, aggregated to municipality – rates of zoning compliance/non-compliance by municipality, along with actual_density vs zoned_density statistics.

Other Creative Data Ideas

  1. Real estate listings – E.g. Zillow, Redfin. Possibly a good source of photographic information about specific properties, including interior shots. Make sure you use these with credit to the source.
  1. Affordable Homes Act – See specifically the provision about Inclusionary Zoning by Simple Majority which help make upzoning easier as well as the Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) As-Of-Right which would allow anyone to build an in-law apartment or small residence on their existing property as a way to increase density. The bill: summary, proposed bill.
  2. The MBTA Communities Act. This legislation was enacted by the prior administration (Baker) and the state is now trying to implement it, but it is becoming controversial in some places. The basic idea is that towns served by the T or Commuter Rail have to upzone around the station service areas, an idea known as “transit-oriented development”.