IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v134y2023ics0264837723003769.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Zoning for character: Contextual rezoning and socioeconomic change in New York City neighborhoods, 1986–2019

Author

Listed:
  • Dublin-Boc, Jenna L.

Abstract

Empirical research is increasingly evaluating how municipal rezonings may affect the racial and socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhoods over time. There are also some zoning types that are not intended to affect development capacity and are based on the policy rationale of protecting urban character. Contextual rezonings are one such type and apply a layer of mandatory regulation on building height, setbacks from the street line, and yard requirements to create more restrictive but visually interesting building envelopes. In the American context, bundled with the notion of urban character are also discriminatory biases about the demographic characteristics of who should be allowed to live in urban neighborhoods and whose presence adds economic value. There is a need for additional studies that examine how character-based zoning controls may also be implicated in forms of neighborhood change, particularly exclusionary practices. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the neighborhood socioeconomic impacts of contextual rezonings implemented in New York City between 1986 and 2019 using a difference-in-difference method. The findings indicate that after implementation, contextually zoned neighborhoods tend to increase in socioeconomic status and become more predominately white and affluent. These changes represent a further entrenchment of white isolation that solidifies related privileges.

Suggested Citation

  • Dublin-Boc, Jenna L., 2023. "Zoning for character: Contextual rezoning and socioeconomic change in New York City neighborhoods, 1986–2019," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:134:y:2023:i:c:s0264837723003769
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106910
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837723003769
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106910?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hankinson, Michael, 2018. "When Do Renters Behave Like Homeowners? High Rent, Price Anxiety, and NIMBYism," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 112(3), pages 473-493, August.
    2. Michael C. Lens & Paavo Monkkonen, 2016. "Do Strict Land Use Regulations Make Metropolitan Areas More Segregated by Income?," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 82(1), pages 6-21, January.
    3. Edward Glaeser & Joseph Gyourko, 2018. "The Economic Implications of Housing Supply," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 3-30, Winter.
    4. Glaeser, Edward L. & Ward, Bryce A., 2009. "The causes and consequences of land use regulation: Evidence from Greater Boston," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 265-278, May.
    5. Vicki Been & Josiah Madar & Simon McDonnell, 2014. "Urban Land‐Use Regulation: Are Homevoters Overtaking the Growth Machine?," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(2), pages 227-265, June.
    6. Edward G. Goetz & Rashad A. Williams & Anthony Damiano, 2020. "Whiteness and Urban Planning," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 86(2), pages 142-156, April.
    7. Brian J. McCabe & Ingrid Gould Ellen, 2016. "Does Preservation Accelerate Neighborhood Change? Examining the Impact of Historic Preservation in New York City," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 82(2), pages 134-146, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Clémence Tricaud, 2019. "Better alone? Evidence on the costs of intermunicipal cooperation," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2019-12-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    2. Kling, Hannah KM, 2020. "Land-Use Regulations As Exclusion: A GIS Analysis," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 50(1), February.
    3. David Foster & Joseph Warren, 2022. "The NIMBY problem," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 34(1), pages 145-172, January.
    4. Gyourko, Joseph & Hartley, Jonathan S. & Krimmel, Jacob, 2021. "The local residential land use regulatory environment across U.S. housing markets: Evidence from a new Wharton index," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    5. Tirthatanmoy Das & Kabir Dasgupta, 2018. "Evaluating the Impact of Mothers' Self-esteem on Early Childhood Home Environment: Evidence from NLSY," Working Papers 2018-03 JEL Classificatio, Auckland University of Technology, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2019.
    6. Mitre-Becerril, David & MacDonald, John M., 2024. "Does urban development influence crime? Evidence from Philadelphia’s new zoning regulations," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    7. Murray, Cameron K., 2020. "Time is money: How landbanking constrains housing supply," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    8. Bratu, Cristina & Harjunen, Oskari & Saarimaa, Tuukka, 2023. "JUE Insight: City-wide effects of new housing supply: Evidence from moving chains," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    9. Matthias Wrede, 2022. "Voting on urban land development," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 335-359, March.
    10. Anenberg, Elliot & Kung, Edward, 2020. "Can more housing supply solve the affordability crisis? Evidence from a neighborhood choice model," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    11. Simon B chler, Maximilian v. Ehrlich, 2021. "Quantifying Land Use Regulation and its Determinants - Ease of Residential Development across Swiss Municipalities," Diskussionsschriften credresearchpaper32, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft - CRED.
    12. Kirdan Lees, 2019. "Quantifying the costs of land use regulation: evidence from New Zealand," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 245-269, September.
    13. Fang, Limin & Stewart, Nathan & Tyndall, Justin, 2023. "Homeowner politics and housing supply," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    14. Bratu, Cristina & Harjunen, Oskari & Saarimaa, Tuukka, 2021. "City-wide effects of new housing supply: Evidence from moving chains," Working Papers 146, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    15. Marco Fregoni & Marco Leonardi & Sauro Mocetti, 2020. "The real effects of land use regulation: quasi-experimental evidence from a discontinuous policy variation," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1261, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    16. Matthew C. Record, 2021. "Offsetting Risk in a Neoliberal Environment: The Link between Asset-Based Welfare and NIMBYism," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-21, November.
    17. Benjamin Austin & Edward Glaeser & Lawrence Summers, 2018. "Jobs for the Heartland: Place-Based Policies in 21st-Century America," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 49(1 (Spring), pages 151-255.
    18. Zhang, Junfu, 2023. "JUE Insight: Measuring the Stringency of Land Use Regulation Using a Shadow Price Approach," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    19. Ismail, Mohammad & Wilhelmsson, Mats, 2022. "New housing investments' effects on gentrification and affordability in Stockholm, Sweden," Working Paper Series 22/8, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance.
    20. Resseger, Matthew, 2022. "The Impact of Land Use Regulation on Racial Segregation: Evidence from Massachusetts Zoning Borders," Working Papers 11220, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:134:y:2023:i:c:s0264837723003769. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.