Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning
Affordable housing has always been a problem in the United States. Cities and towns originally engaged in forms of discrimination through exclusionary zoning to exclude low-income residents. While many of the social attitudes persist today, the question is how to encourage new affordable housing development.
Zoning has been a fundamental concept in American society since Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., which allowed cities and towns to plan for development. A zoning regulation is constitutional, provided that it has a substantial relation to public health, safety, or welfare. The substantial relation standard provides local government broad deference so long as the “validity of the legislative classification for zoning purposes [is] fairly debatable.”
Zoning generally regulates uses and provides spatial requirements; however, land use planning should also consider the community’s need for affordable housing. Through “inclusionary” zoning, governments require or encourage developers—both residential and commercial—to create affordable residential units as a part of any new development.
Typically, inclusionary zoning ordinances mandate a percentage of affordable units, designate an income level defined by median income, and provide for an affordable period—a required length of time for the units to remain affordably priced. In return, inclusionary ordinances often provide developers with incentives, the most common of which is a density bonus.
