Just twelve pages
How America's zoning codes became a labyrinth, and how cities are finding their way out
Table of contents
Have you ever sat down and actually read your city's zoning code cover to cover?
If so, you belong to a very small club. In most American cities, you’d need the better part of a week and a planning degree to make it through.
But this wasn’t always so. In 1916, New York City wrote the country’s first comprehensive zoning code and the whole thing was just twelve pages. A light read over lunch, perhaps. It addressed three basic questions about every plot of land: What can you use it for? How tall can you build? How much of the lot can you cover?
That was it. That was zoning. Twelve pages to govern the most complex city in the country.
Today New York's zoning resolution spans fourteen articles, eleven appendices, and 126 maps. It’s like this across the nation.
Everywhere you go, you'll find rules on parking ratios, setbacks, floor-area ratios, lot coverage, building separation, historic overlays, flood overlays, design review, and accessory-dwelling standards. Each with exceptions, and exceptions to the exceptions.
Have you ever sat down and actually read your city's zoning code cover to cover?
If so, you belong to a very small club. In most American cities, you’d need the better part of a week and a planning degree to make it through.
But this wasn’t always so. In 1916, New York City wrote the country’s first comprehensive zoning code and the whole thing was just twelve pages. A light read over lunch, perhaps. It addressed three basic questions about every plot of land: What can you use it for? How tall can you build? How much of the lot can you cover?
That was it. That was zoning. Twelve pages to govern the most complex city in the country.
Today New York's zoning resolution spans fourteen articles, eleven appendices, and 126 maps. It’s like this across the nation.
Everywhere you go, you'll find rules on parking ratios, setbacks, floor-area ratios, lot coverage, building separation, historic overlays, flood overlays, design review, and accessory-dwelling standards. Each with exceptions, and exceptions to the exceptions.
Why so tangled?
Certainly no council ever sat down and said, "Right then, let's make housing super hard to build."
The entangling unfolded over time. In the 1910s and 20s, people worried new towers would steal light and air from neighbors, so height limits and setback rules went in. After World War II, suburbs boomed and councils fretted about overcrowding, so lot-size minimums arrived.
In the 50s and 60s, cars flooded the streets, so cities required off-street parking. In the 60s and 70s, cities created historic districts to save beloved buildings from the wrecking ball, and they also added flood and environmental overlays. The 80s and 90s layered on design review. Every rule was a response to a problem people were facing.
Rules were passed by different councils, in different eras, responding to different pressures, with no way of knowing what the next council (or the one twenty years later) would stack on top.
Layer a century of solutions on top of each other, and you get something nobody designed and no one would ever choose: a system so intricate even the people administering it may question what's legal on a given lot.
If you work in city government, this is your inheritance. You didn't build the labyrinth, yet there it is.
Why so tangled?
Certainly no council ever sat down and said, "Right then, let's make housing super hard to build."
The entangling unfolded over time. In the 1910s and 20s, people worried new towers would steal light and air from neighbors, so height limits and setback rules went in. After World War II, suburbs boomed and councils fretted about overcrowding, so lot-size minimums arrived.
In the 50s and 60s, cars flooded the streets, so cities required off-street parking. In the 60s and 70s, cities created historic districts to save beloved buildings from the wrecking ball, and they also added flood and environmental overlays. The 80s and 90s layered on design review. Every rule was a response to a problem people were facing.
Rules were passed by different councils, in different eras, responding to different pressures, with no way of knowing what the next council (or the one twenty years later) would stack on top.
Layer a century of solutions on top of each other, and you get something nobody designed and no one would ever choose: a system so intricate even the people administering it may question what's legal on a given lot.
If you work in city government, this is your inheritance. You didn't build the labyrinth, yet there it is.
The bill comes due
And the labyrinth has a cost. Its name is housing affordability.
In a typical American city, roughly three-quarters of residential land is reserved exclusively for detached single-family houses. The duplex. The triplex. The charming walk-up. The starter homes that built the American middle class are, in many places, simply illegal to build, or they’re buried under so many rules that nobody tries.
The bill comes due
And the labyrinth has a cost. Its name is housing affordability.
In a typical American city, roughly three-quarters of residential land is reserved exclusively for detached single-family houses. The duplex. The triplex. The charming walk-up. The starter homes that built the American middle class are, in many places, simply illegal to build, or they’re buried under so many rules that nobody tries.
The great untangling begins
Now some cities are rethinking zoning entirely, and asking, which rules truly serve the city we have today? It’s early but the results look promising.
Austin let homeowners put up to three homes on a lot. Permits jumped 86% in one year, and rents in larger buildings fell.
Buffalo scrapped parking minimums in 2017. Two-thirds of new homes since then would have been illegal under the old rules. Let that one sink in.
Houston cut its minimum lot size. Now the city has nearly 80,000 new homes priced below the national median.
Los Angeles made backyard cottages easy to permit. In 2024, the city approved about 6,600, nearly as many as all new apartments combined.
Minneapolis ended single-family-only zoning in 2018. Five years later, housing stock grew by 12% and rents rose only 1%.
New Rochelle replaced case-by-case approvals with a clear code and a 90-day clock. Roughly 11,000 new homes later, rents rose just 1.6% while neighboring cities climbed 25%.
Portland legalized duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes on nearly every residential lot in 2020. This new middle housing is selling for roughly $200,000 less than the city's new single-family homes.
Seattle relaxed parking minimums near transit back in 2012, reducing a major construction cost. Within five years, builders put up more than 35,000 new homes using this new flexibility.
Spokane allowed up to six homes per lot near transit in 2022. Middle housing (duplexes, townhomes, backyard cottages) jumped from about 4% of the city's residential permits to nearly 20% by 2025.
Charlotte ended single-family-only zoning in 2021, and Cambridge legalized apartment buildings citywide in 2025. We'll stay tuned for their results.
Zoning took a hundred years to tangle. Turns out untangling it might be reasonably quick.
Sources:
Buffalo & Seattle (parking reform, share of homes previously illegal)
Sightline: "The Eight Deaths of Portland's Residential Infill Project"
________________________________________________________________________
Govstream.ai builds intelligent AI-powered permitting workflows for cities and counties. Our platform brings continuous feedback, intelligent routing, and real-time decision support to every stage of the permitting process to support staff and guide builders.
The great untangling begins
Now some cities are rethinking zoning entirely, and asking, which rules truly serve the city we have today? It’s early but the results look promising.
Austin let homeowners put up to three homes on a lot. Permits jumped 86% in one year, and rents in larger buildings fell.
Buffalo scrapped parking minimums in 2017. Two-thirds of new homes since then would have been illegal under the old rules. Let that one sink in.
Houston cut its minimum lot size. Now the city has nearly 80,000 new homes priced below the national median.
Los Angeles made backyard cottages easy to permit. In 2024, the city approved about 6,600, nearly as many as all new apartments combined.
Minneapolis ended single-family-only zoning in 2018. Five years later, housing stock grew by 12% and rents rose only 1%.
New Rochelle replaced case-by-case approvals with a clear code and a 90-day clock. Roughly 11,000 new homes later, rents rose just 1.6% while neighboring cities climbed 25%.
Portland legalized duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes on nearly every residential lot in 2020. This new middle housing is selling for roughly $200,000 less than the city's new single-family homes.
Seattle relaxed parking minimums near transit back in 2012, reducing a major construction cost. Within five years, builders put up more than 35,000 new homes using this new flexibility.
Spokane allowed up to six homes per lot near transit in 2022. Middle housing (duplexes, townhomes, backyard cottages) jumped from about 4% of the city's residential permits to nearly 20% by 2025.
Charlotte ended single-family-only zoning in 2021, and Cambridge legalized apartment buildings citywide in 2025. We'll stay tuned for their results.
Zoning took a hundred years to tangle. Turns out untangling it might be reasonably quick.
Sources:
Buffalo & Seattle (parking reform, share of homes previously illegal)
Sightline: "The Eight Deaths of Portland's Residential Infill Project"
________________________________________________________________________
Govstream.ai builds intelligent AI-powered permitting workflows for cities and counties. Our platform brings continuous feedback, intelligent routing, and real-time decision support to every stage of the permitting process to support staff and guide builders.
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