Bettman Session: Reforming Zoning: State Responses to the Housing Crisis

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Course Details

The housing affordability crisis is prompting a national realignment in planning and law. Although planners have long been aware of the equity and sustainability consequences of the built environment, particularly concerning single-family residential development patterns, the dearth of affordable housing is now prompting lawmakers to take note of these consequences, too. Already, state legislatures across the United States are acting to reform 100-year-old zoning enabling laws to encourage more affordable housing construction.

These reforms, which will govern planners' day-to-day work, include everything from requiring local governments to allow middle housing and accessory dwelling units in single-family neighborhoods, to expediting permitting timelines and reducing fees, allowing more mixed-use development, and providing tax tools to facilitate housing development.

This course will describe these recent changes and how new data sources, such as the National Zoning Atlas, are informing them. It will also provide planners with strategies to implement pro-housing policies in their communities, from compliance with updated zoning enabling laws to public engagement and advocacy strategies. Planners will lead efforts to overhaul plans and codes to comply with state law, and this presentation will offer the legal knowledge and practical skills to do so.

This course is approved for 1.00 Illinois MCLE general credit hours.

Learning Outcomes

  • Understand the relationship between state law regarding zoning and housing, and local planning and zoning practice.
  • Identify how individual states are reforming state zoning and housing laws to address the housing affordability crisis, and how new methods for collecting information are informing those reforms.
  • Develop strategies for planning and zoning practice to encourage the construction of more affordable forms of housing and avoid running afoul of state laws promoting new housing construction.
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