Zooming out to understand the Zeal behind the Zoning.
There is a housing shortage. Its causes are varied and complicated. But it exists across the nation, across Wisconsin, and across Dane County. No one is denying that reality.
But some people have begun to question the strategies and tools (or lack thereof) that local municipalities are choosing to use to address it.
It has become apparent that, in the face of this challenge, some cities are turning to the quick fix of rezoning, which does little to fully address the varied and complicated causes of the bigger problem.
Cap Times columnist Paul Fanlund has been running an editorial series on this one-size-fits-all remedy that the City of Madison is undertaking. His in-depth coverage of how this is playing out can be found here:
Proposed zoning changes may shock Madison homeowners (1.16.23)
“making it easier for the private sector to build more housing to keep up with demand”
City hall is taking aim at Madison homeowners’ neighborhoods (3.8.24)
“The mantra of Madison leaders in 2024 seems to be that whatever the problem, doing away with zoning restrictions is at least part of the answer.”
Does zoning furor suggest Madison is becoming two cities? (3.25.24)
“…projections that more people will want to live in Madison in the future . . . justif[ies] ignoring the objections from those who live here now.
Historian Mollenhoff laments power shift to Madison planners (4.1.24)
“…power in city hall has shifted to the planners and the mayor, and . . . citizens and neighborhood associations are now among the disenfranchised.” (Historian, David Mollenhoff)
The common narrative around Madison rezoning is misleading (5.24.24)
“…promoting unrestricted density appears to be a preeminent goal for Rhodes-Conway and this version of the council.”
As BRT and rezoning advance, recall Paul Soglin’s narrative (6.14.24)
“The present process has turned everything around,” Soglin wrote. “The staff designs a solution and takes it to the neighborhood for a response. That system weakens the voice of the people, a voice that is not always perfect, but a voice that should be running this city.“ (Former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin on Madison City Planners)
So How Did We Get Here?
Madison did not originate this tactic that some call pro-active rezoning.
The City is following a trail blazed by the City of Minneapolis, which in 2018, abolished single-family zoning.
This radical move came from rhetoric that the only way to expand housing choices is to eliminate existing zoning codes.
It follows a trail that leads even further back to some of the largest cities in the country, especially along the coasts, which have adopted the position that zoning is the cause of unaffordable, inequitable, and non-sustainable cities.
This idea has been popularized by M. Nolan Gray, a New York City Planner who informs state and local policymakers and has authored the book:
Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It