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M. Nolan Gray

Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It Paperback – June 21, 2022

by M. Nolan Gray (Author)

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What if scrapping one flawed policy could bring US cities closer to addressing debilitating housing shortages, stunted growth and innovation, persistent racial and economic segregation, and car-dependent development?

It’s time for America to move beyond zoning, argues city planner M. Nolan Gray in Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. With lively explanations and stories, Gray shows why zoning abolition is a necessary—if not sufficient—condition for building more affordable, vibrant, equitable, and sustainable cities.

The arbitrary lines of zoning maps across the country have come to dictate where Americans may live and work, forcing cities into a pattern of growth that is segregated and sprawling.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Reform is in the air, with cities and states across the country critically reevaluating zoning. In cities as diverse as Minneapolis, Fayetteville, and Hartford, the key pillars of zoning are under fire, with apartment bans being scrapped, minimum lot sizes dropping, and off-street parking requirements disappearing altogether. Some American cities—including Houston, America’s fourth-largest city—already make land-use planning work without zoning.

In Arbitrary Lines, Gray lays the groundwork for this ambitious cause by clearing up common confusions and myths about how American cities regulate growth and examining the major contemporary critiques of zoning. Gray sets out some of the efforts currently underway to reform zoning and charts how land-use regulation might work in the post-zoning American city.

Despite mounting interest, no single book has pulled these threads together for a popular audience. In Arbitrary Lines, Gray fills this gap by showing how zoning has failed to address even our most basic concerns about urban growth over the past century, and how we can think about a new way of planning a more affordable, prosperous, equitable, and sustainable American city.

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Island Press
Publication date

June 21, 2022
Dimensions

6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1642832545
ISBN-13

978-1642832549
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A welcome manifesto for rethought urban spaces and their outliers, bringing social justice into the discussion." ― Kirkus Reviews

"Arbitrary Lines is at once a primer and a manifesto, a highly readable introduction to zoning’s history and harms as well as a bracing call for a post-zoning city." ― American Conservative

"Excellent new book." -- Matt Yglesias ― Slow Boring

"A provocation and a prescriptive treatise." ― Common Edge

“Overall, Gray’s book is an excellent addition to the literature on housing and land-use regulations.” -- Adam Millsap ― Forbes

"Powerfully argued book." ― Orange County Register

"Arbitrary Lines is a comprehensive, well-grounded, and logically organized critique of the rigid and indeed arbitrary way in which Euclidean zoning structures our communities and shapes our lives. Elegantly written, concise, and witty, Gray’s book is a useful introduction to zoning’s history and current state...If you live outside the world of professional architects, landscape architects, urban designers, and planners and yet you wonder why our cities are built the way they are and if, further, you have time to read one book on the subject, Arbitrary Lines, with its engaging writing style, may well top your list." ― Journal of the American Planning Association

“If I could get all members of my own city council to read one thing, it would be the chapters of Arbitrary Lines that convey vital messages about zoning’s failures and the potential for its reform.”
― Journal of Urban Affairs

"The major purpose of Nolan Gray's new book, Arbitrary Lines, is to show that by limiting housing construction, zoning increases rents by limiting housing supply, accelerates suburban sprawl by reducing density and pricing Americans out of walkable areas, and slows economic growth by making it expensive for Americans to move to prosperous areas. On each count, Gray makes a persuasive (to me) case." ― Planetizen

“If you are interested in affordable housing, housing equity, environmental justice, reduction of carbon emissions, adequate public transit, or streets that are safe for walking and cycling, Arbitrary Lines is an excellent resource in understanding how American cities got the way they are and how they might be changed for the better.”
― Resilience

"Nolan Gray has the insights of Jane Jacobs and the prose style of Mark Twain. In his aptly-titled new book, Arbitrary Lines, Gray argues that zoning in America is a disease masquerading as a cure. He also proposes a post-zoning style of planning for fair, sustainable, and livable cities." -- Donald Shoup, Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles; author of "The High Cost of Free Parking"

“In Arbitrary Lines, Nolan Gray wrote a compelling argument for urgently reforming the ‘stodgy rulebook’ that distorts the shape and decreases the welfare of American cities. In addition to his devastating critique of the status quo, Nolan suggests a practical path that would allow urban communities to get out of their current zoning straightjacket. This book is a must-read for all of us who are interested in more innovative and affordable cities.” -- Alain Bertaud, senior fellow at the Marron Institute of Urban Management and former principal urban planner at the World Bank

"In Arbitrary Lines, Gray provides a compelling case against the parochial zoning rules that have shaped Americans' lives, from our homes to our budgets to the work opportunities available to us. While the costs of zoning become clearer each year, few have questioned the paradigm of local policymakers determining the quantity and type of building that will be permitted on the private land in their jurisdictions. Gray steps in with a new way of thinking about urban land use and a road map for a future unconstrained by zoning." -- Emily Hamilton, Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University

About the Author

M. Nolan Gray is a professional city planner and an expert in urban land-use regulation. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Gray previously worked on the front lines of zoning as a planner in New York City. He now serves as an Affiliated Scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he advises state and local policymakers on land-use policy. Gray is a contributor to Market Urbanism and a widely published author, with work appearing in outlets such as The Atlantic, Bloomberg Citylab, and The Guardian. He lives in Los Angeles, California and is originally from Lexington, Kentucky.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Island Press (June 21, 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1642832545
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1642832549
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #56,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16 in City Planning & Urban Development
- #16 in Urban Planning and Development
- #29 in Sociology of Urban Areas

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M. Nolan Gray

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M. Nolan Gray is the research director for California YIMBY and professional city planner. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Gray previously worked on the front lines of zoning as a planner in New York City. He now serves as an Affiliated Scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he advises state and local policymakers on land-use policy. Gray is a contributor to Market Urbanism and a widely published author, with work appearing in outlets such as The Atlantic, Bloomberg Citylab, and The Guardian. He lives in Los Angeles, California and is originally from Lexington, Kentucky.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

101 global ratings

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Shane Fields

A good read, but not one I fully agree with

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 21, 2022

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This book is a great read, if only for the first part that does an excellent job explaining the planning profession in layman’s terms.

I am an urban planner in California, and a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning student. I think a lot of his issues with zoning are fair critiques. While not unique to this book, it does an excellent job of summarizing a lot of the issues discussed in professional circles.

I am giving this book a four star review, however, because despite the authors clear qualifications on the subject, and excellently compiled review of the profession and issues, many of the solutions come from narrow vision. He often asserts aspect of urban theory, such as densities leading to lower rates of car ownership , from misguided western centric planning perspectives that do not reflect realities of some of the largest cities on earth. Indeed, I thought it was ironic to read a “lions share” of the book while on vacation in Mumbai, India as the on the ground reality here flips a lot of the “theory” regarding organic city growth that the author relies so heavily on on its head.

While I do agree with certain elements, the critique of it being libertarian is fair: the author wants to put increased power in the hands of developers, who have historically, in their profit chasing efforts, shown us that they aren’t good faith actors deserving of that trust.

I also felt the book was written for the non-planner, and ergo decided to forego statistics that would actually reinforce argument points, and in lieu utilizes theory-based assumptions of organic city growth that again, do not hold up. If the author reads this, I would love to connect on a professional level to help look at spatial statistics to review these arguments, from the perspective of global cities that don’t lean as heavily on zoning as cities in the US do.

All that being said, while I disagree with a lot philosophically with this book, and while I feel the theory can’t pull its own weight against the blunt force of reality, I don’t think it’s entirely without merit. If I were teaching a class on the introduction to urban planning, I would have my students read this and facilitate discussion around it because I feel it touches on great subjects that are worthy of greater conversation. It’s not something one single PhD candidate can speak down to us from the ivory tower of academia on, but it’s certainly something to round table with the many bright and emerging minds of the profession with.

To the author directly: great work, I hope there comes a day when I meet you in professional circles where we can have a robust conversation about it. It was extremely thought provoking, and even the elements I disagreed on I found myself mulling over for extended periods of time.

To planners considering reading this, or planning students: an extremely worth-while read, but one you should take point by point and not in zero sum. You’ll find this plenty useful as a literary reference when discussing alternate schools of thought around the profession or issue with zoning.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

A. Ghent

Well-written, good history of zoning, sensible policy prescriptions

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 4, 2023

Verified Purchase

So if you’re already an urbanist, nothing in this book will shock you. You already know that SF zoning in particular is bad for equity, productivity, the climate, and, although Gray doesn’t address this one, our health. Still, this is a good, easy read that will help you explain succinctly why we need to end SF zoning.

It did change my mind about whether zoning is necessary at all to address externalities from land use. Gray makes a pretty good case that it’s better to directly regulate a nuisance than indirectly try to address it through zoning. Perhaps most compellingly, one person’s nuisance is another’s amenity. For example, I was crushed when my city (SLC) denied a wine bar the ability to operate because the location was deemed too close to residential. Clearly, the way to address the potential noise late night would have been to directly regulate well, the noise, rather than deny the wine bar the ability to operate altogether thus forcing us all to get in our cars and drive to the nearest wine bar.

Helpful

a good introduction to the topic

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

The major purpose of this book is to show that because zoning strictly limits housing construction, zoning contributes to rising rents (by limiting housing supply), suburban sprawl (by pricing people out of walkable cities), and economic stagnation (by making it expensive for people to move to the most economically dynamic cities). On each count, Gray makes a persuasive (to me) case- though because this is a popular book rather than a scholarly one, Gray doesn't fully address anti-housing counterarguments. (If you want a scholarly treatment of pro-zoning counterarguments, you might wish to google my own work or Vicki Been's work on "supply skepticism.")

In addition to covering this well-trodden ground, Gray covers some issues I have not thought about so much, most notably the historical origins of zoning, Japan's more successful zoning rules, and its failure to control nuisance land uses.

As to the former, the conventional justification of zoning is that it protects residential neighborhoods from big, smelly factories. But Gray shows that even in the 1910s when the first zoning codes were created, one purpose of zoning was to exclude the poor and nonwhites from rich areas.

Gray notes that while housing costs are skyrocketed in other countries, Tokyo is "remarkably affordable." Why? Japan's national government limits local governments to 12 zoning districts; even though cities can choose between them, they cannot make the law more complex by adding additional districts, thus making housing construction easier. In addition, no zoning district is allowed to completely exclude apartments (unlike in the U.S.)

Finally, Gray notes that zoning has not been particularly successful in limiting pollution, for three reasons. First, areas near zoning boundaries are still subject to pollution: for example, if street 1 is zoned for smelly factories and streets 2-20 are zoned for housing, streets 2 and 3 might be close enough to the factory to suffer from pollution. Second, even a permitted activity can be obnoxious: for example, a cell phone store can blast music out into the street, turning an ordinarily innocuous activity into a nuisance. Third, cities often use zoning to dump noxious activities into low-income areas, ensuring that the poor don't get the benefits of zoning.

As an alternative, Gray suggests the following reforms: First, eliminate today's zoning codes- especially the parts that get in the way of housing construction. Second, as an alternative, cities should enact activity-by-activity regulations such as noise ordinances, as well as laws limiting universally unpopular activities such as smelly industries and floodplain development. Third, Gray suggests that neighborhoods should be allowed to voluntarily opt-in to stricter rules. (It seems to me that this would allow some of the problems of the status quo to reappear, so I am not sure I agree here).

Finally, Gray suggests that urban planners themselves would benefit from widespread deregulation. Currently, planners waste time refereeing fights between developers and neighborhood activists. But in a post-zoning system, developers could focus on shaping the physical form of the city: street design and design of other public spaces.

20 people found this helpful

Helpful

Joshua Smith

A heartening, short, and well-researched take on current and future city planning

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

This is a clear, provocative, take on city planning. It defines zoning in clear, simple terms. It rightly calls for HOAs and covenants as replacements for much of zoning's current function.

If you're a beginner in housing policy, this is the book for you. If you're advanced, then you'll enjoy the discussions of what planning could be--an industry focused on leading indicators that ensure the quality of life. This is a similar proposal as in Alain Bertaud's Order Without Design.

In a phrase, Gray shows that the emperor has no clothes. Zoning has failed at its goals and we should move past it.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

jesse boyd

Educational as Enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 30, 2022

Verified Purchase

What Nolan Gray has provided us in this book is an arsenal of statistics to help us understand how zoning has degraded our country.

I am forever thankful for it.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Ujal Gorchu

Very very average

Reviewed in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 on January 26, 2023

Verified Purchase

Written in a very surface level fashion. The author even said that he'd just research stuff on his own and then decides to make a book out of it. Academic rigor is non existing. If you're just starting and are interested in the pragmatic aspects of zoning in the north American context only then it could perhaps work.

John Parks

Alarming Zoning Problems

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 18, 2022

Verified Purchase

Arbitrary Lines highlights the alarming problems with municipal zoning. It's an easy read covering problems and solutions around the world.

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