Rethinking How We Teach Zoning in Planning School

Zoning is now in the national spotlight more than ever, but reforms vary in their consideration of equity. How can we teach aspiring planners to pursue zoning reform with equity at the forefront?

In this viewpoint, "Bring Zoning Back into the Planning Curricula" (Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 91, No. 4), Minjee Kim, Ivis Garcia, Edward Goetz, Bernadette Hanlon, Paavo Monkkonen, Rolf Pendall, Deirdre Pfeiffer, Jason Reece, and Andrew Whittemore reflect on their experience collaboratively developing and delivering a new course on the history of exclusionary zoning and the path toward equity.

Responsive Curriculum

In response to the events of 2020 — the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic — the authors convened to consider how, as planning academics, they can address racial injustices in planning pedagogy. The group focused on the history of exclusionary zoning, its role in perpetuating racial and economic disparities, and the remedies available to today's planners. Their efforts resulted in a collaborative course designed to engage students and instructors in ending exclusionary zoning and advancing social justice through zoning reform.

The course's design reflected the following beliefs:

• Planning students need a strong, practical understanding of how zoning works.
• When taught without a critical lens, zoning will continue to reinforce inequalities.
• Zoning reforms can be designed to further equity.
• Students required a clear understanding of the practical steps necessary to reform zoning.

The course Zoning for Equity was designed to equip future planners with an understanding of how zoning relates to equity. The course was developed and launched in the fall of 2021 by instructors from eight campuses: Arizona State University; Florida State University; Ohio State University; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign; University of Minnesota; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and the University of Utah.

Four Principles To Teach Zoning With a Critical Perspective

After three years of teaching the course, the authors developed a shared understanding of both the limitations and the potential of zoning reform in advancing equity. They outline four principles to help professional planning degree programs teach zoning with a critical perspective:

1. Accept the dominance of zoning in planning practice

Although comprehensive planning is often touted as the superior tool in planning education, local governments focus more on zoning ordinances than on comprehensive plans. These two planning tools are frequently only loosely connected. This presents a challenge to planning educators concerned with equity.

Historically, U.S. courts and state legislatures have given extensive deference to local governments in how they zone, effectively sanctioning exclusionary zoning practices. Should educators continue to teach about comprehensive planning or focus on zoning? Teaching both comprehensive planning and zoning would be ideal, but time and resources are limited.

2. Teach zoning with a focus on fostering equity

Zoning reform has the potential to advance equity, particularly in addressing racial and class segregation, but to do so requires an understanding of the roots of exclusionary zoning and the inequitable outcomes resulting from it.

Educators now have access to more resources than ever for teaching zoning and equity, including the American Planning Association's (APA) Equity in Zoning Policy Guide. International examples illustrate how zoning can avoid separating people (Germany) or how entrenched exclusionary zoning can be countered (South Africa).

3. Link zoning to broader planning tools and political strategies

Zoning must be taught alongside complementary planning and nonplanning tools for equity. Examples of such tools can be found in APA's Planning for Equity Policy Guide. When teaching zoning this way, students gain a clear picture of how zoning reform fits into a broader ecosystem of solutions.

4. Confront the heterogeneity of problems and solutions across places

An important benefit of teaching a multi-campus course was the ability to compare differences in housing problems and solutions across campuses. Some participating campuses were located in communities facing housing shortages, while others faced surpluses and issues of neighborhood decline.

Zoning reform is not a blanket solution and must be paired with specific local strategies. In distressed communities, zoning reforms implemented in partnership with residents allow greater control over neighborhood change, including protection from environmental injustice. State politics and legal institutions also play a critical role. The authors have begun explicitly discussing state–local relationships, exposing students to concrete regulatory, political, and cultural contexts at both levels.

Re-Energizing Zoning Education

The principles developed by the authors offer planning educators ways to integrate zoning into core courses on law, history, and theory. Zoning intersects with all areas of specialization. Transportation planners need to understand how parking reforms might affect transportation demand and how to respond to opposition. Economic development planners need to understand zoning to better guide urban redevelopment projects and minimize job–housing mismatches.

Although the authors consistently use the term zoning, the course also addresses other non-zoning land-use and building regulations, as well as privately enacted exclusionary tools, including restrictive covenants and homeowner associations. Exclusionary zoning has worked in conjunction with these non-zoning tools to create and cement spatial inequalities. The course demonstrates both the practical effects and the limitations of zoning reform.

Although the course does not provide a roadmap for zoning reform, the authors demonstrate that there is no single correct version of zoning reform for equity. Planning programs should prepare planners to develop and implement context-specific reforms. Integrating zoning throughout the curriculum with a critical lens can spark debate and innovation on how to zone for equity.

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