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The Political Economy of Inclusionary Zoning: Adoption, Implementation, and Neighborhood Effects Author: Constantine E. Kontokosta Dissertation School: Columbia University Pages: 279 Publication Date: May 2011 Availability: Access Number: 10855 Abstract: The original intent of inclusionary zoning (IZ) policies was to produce affordable housing with little direct public subsidy, while encouraging neighborhood integration and overcoming community opposition to low-income housing projects (Calavita el al. 1997; Calavita and Grimes 1998). Many of the justifications for a mixed-income affordable housing strategy stem from the belief that neighborhood racial and, more specifically, income integration provide positive social, economic, and political externalities (Cutler, Glaeser, and Vigdor 1999; Schwartz and Tajbakhsh 1997; Wilson 1987). Since the adoption of the first IZ programs in the early 1970s, the outcomes of these policies in relation to their initial objectives has been mixed (Schuetz, Meltzer, and Been 2009). While affordable housing has been produced in some areas, there has been little scholarly investigation on why and how the effects of IZ vary across jurisdictions. This dissertation theoretically and empirically explores, using a variety of econometric techniques, both the efficacy of IZ policies and the factors that influence the variation in outcomes. My research specifically examines how institutional framework-such as government structure and regulatory environment-and policy structure impact the effectiveness of IZ policies with respect to: affordable housing production; spatial distribution of affordable units; and neighborhood change and integration. The dissertation begins by examining the patterns and mechanisms of diffusion of IZ programs across regions and jurisdictions. This research focuses on two comparative study areas: 187 jurisdictions in Massachusetts and 455 in California and all census tracts in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Suffolk County, New York. The Massachusetts and California study area is used to analyze the spatial diffusion of IZ policies and their effects on housing markets. Suffolk and Montgomery counties provide an ideal comparison group, as the geographic, socioeconomic, and central city economic relationships of the two are similar, yet the institutional and policy structures relating to land use and housing vary significantly. For both areas, substantial original databases of affordable units have been created, containing data on more than 20,000 units built through IZ programs. In this dissertation, I argue that institutional framework and policy structure represent the critical link between the adoption of IZ policies, their implementation, and outcomes. While the intended goals of the policy are straightforward-produce affordable housing leveraged by market-rate units in the same development to limit required public subsidy and encourage neighborhood integration-the circumstances surrounding IZ adoption, the institutional context in which it is implemented, and the elements that shape the policy all can have substantial influence on the effects of the policy in a particular municipality. This dissertation demonstrates that these factors can cause IZ policies to have outcomes ranging from those that support affordable housing production and integration to the complete opposite, where new housing production is constrained, affordable housing produced is spatially concentrated in poor, minority areas, and racial segregation is reinforced and, in some cases, exacerbated. |
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