
In any program to add affordable and deeply affordable homes to housing stock, zoning comes into play. Zoning has been presented as the process to obtain “the highest and best use” for land. Described this way, it sounds as if zoning is objective: that a highest and best use for every parcel of land exists.
Experience tells a different story. For example, in England, researchers charted the law that governs the compensation paid by the government for land purchased from private owners against the form of social rent housing that was built on that land. When the foundation for calculating compensation changed, the form of social housing transformed from ground-oriented homes to high rises. This change occurred when the principle of highest and best use prioritized the monetary value of land1.
Deciding “highest and best use” is really a social process.
So, with zoning being a social process, we have choices about which principles to apply when making land use decisions. We could decide that highest and best use is defined by a different set of criteria than the ones we are using now. Currently, monetary value is the top criteria for deciding highest and best use, but environmental and social aspirations could take a seat beside monetary value.
Given our current social obsession with land value, it is hard to imagine that highest and best use might be defined by something other than money. But it does happen.
The City of Vancouver has piloted a zoning plan, which is intended to encourage the development of deeply affordable housing, in two neighbourhoods. You can read more about it in The Tyee: When Will Rents Come Down?
The authors of an article in Next City have modelled how zoning reform could increase the supply of affordable housing in and around Seattle. They also discuss a process for changing existing zoning, which centres on actions by the state government. Read more2: How To Reform Zoning To Allow More Density Around Transit – And Meet Housing Demand
Footnotes
- For more on this research try: Some Ideas To Fix England’s Social Rent Housing Deficit
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