With nearly 10 million low- and moderate-income working households paying more than half their income towards their rent or mortgage, cities are increasingly using their zoning authority to encourage the development of new workforce housing units. A study by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing assesses and illustrates the economics of the most common approach: inclusionary zoning (IZ). Through IZ, cities require or encourage developers to create below-market rental apartments or for-sale homes in connection with the local zoning approval of a proposed market-rate development project. This study-based on in-depth analytic modeling, an extensive literature review, and interviews with developers and other land use experts-provides such advice on what incentives work best in which development scenarios. The study's purpose is to enable policy makers to better understand how an IZ policy affects real estate development and how to use the necessary development incentives for IZ to be most effective.

Inclusionary housing is a means of using the planning system to create affordable housing and foster social inclusion by capturing resources created through the marketplace. The term refers to a program, regulation, or law that requires or provides incentives to private developers to incorporate affordable or social housing as a part of market-driven developments, either by incorporating the affordable housing into the same development, building it elsewhere, or contributing money or land for the production of social or affordable housing in lieu of construction. This volume examines inclusionary housing programs in-depth in seven countries (United States, Canada, England, Ireland, France, Spain, and Italy) and reports on experiences in others, including South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Israel, India, and Colombia.

Inclusionary zoning ordinances encourage real estate developers to set aside a portion of new development for housing that is affordable to households in a certain income bracket. The variations among such ordinances are as numerous as the communities that have adopted them, because each one must be crafted with the particular needs of the community in mind. As a result, public officials, housing professionals, and concerned citizens face a dizzying array of options when developing an inclusionary zoning ordinance. This guide explains the major policy decisions associated with inclusionary zoning and provides the legal context for those decisions. It also provides examples of ordinance language from inclusionary zoning programs around the country - including recently enacted programs from North Carolina - to illustrate specific choices. The aim is to help with the task of developing or modifying an inclusionary zoning ordinance by translating policy decisions into a working ordinance. A free PDF download of the table of contents is available (https: //www.sog.unc.edu/publications/books/inclusionary-zoning-guide-ordinances-and-law /details).

An argument that operational urban planning can be improved by the application of the tools of urban economics to the design of regulations and infrastructure. Urban planning is a craft learned through practice. Planners make rapid decisions that have an immediate impact on the ground—the width of streets, the minimum size of land parcels, the heights of buildings. The language they use to describe their objectives is qualitative—“sustainable,” “livable,” “resilient”—often with no link to measurable outcomes. Urban economics, on the other hand, is a quantitative science, based on theories, models, and empirical evidence largely developed in academic settings. In this book, the eminent urban planner Alain Bertaud argues that applying the theories of urban economics to the practice of urban planning would greatly improve both the productivity of cities and the welfare of urban citizens. Bertaud explains that markets provide the indispensable mechanism for cities’ development. He cites the experience of cities without markets for land or labor in pre-reform China and Russia; this “urban planners’ dream” created inefficiencies and waste. Drawing on five decades of urban planning experience in forty cities around the world, Bertaud links cities’ productivity to the size of their labor markets; argues that the design of infrastructure and markets can complement each other; examines the spatial distribution of land prices and densities; stresses the importance of mobility and affordability; and critiques the land use regulations in a number of cities that aim at redesigning existing cities instead of just trying to alleviate clear negative externalities. Bertaud concludes by describing the new role that joint teams of urban planners and economists could play to improve the way cities are managed.

Evidence for the negative effects of segregation and concentrated poverty in America's cities now exists in abundance; poor and underrepresented communities in segregated urban housing markets suffer diminished outcomes in education, economic mobility, political participation, and physical and psychological health. Though many of the aggravating factors underlying this inequity have persisted or even grown worse in recent decades, the level of energy and attention devoted to them by local and national policymakers has ebbed significantly from that which inspired the landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960s. Marking 50 years since the passage of the Fair Housing and Civil Rights Acts, Facing Segregation both builds on and departs from two generations of scholarship on urban development and inequality. Authors provide historical context for patterns of segregation in the United States and present arguments for bold new policy actions ranging from local innovations to national initiatives. The volume refocuses attention on achievable solutions by providing not only an overview of this timely subject, but a roadmap forward as the twenty-first century assesses the successes and failures of the housing policies inherited from the twentieth. Rather than introducing new theories or empirical data sets describing the urban landscape, Metzger and Webber have gathered the field's first collection of prescriptions for what ought to be done.

What is a decent home? Does it simply provide shelter from the elements? Is it affordable enough that you can buy the other necessities of life? Does it connect you to a community with adequate social and economic resources? Noted housing expert Alan Mallach turns his decades of experience to these questions in "A Decent Home". Mallach's nuanced analysis of housing issues critical to communities across the country will help planners evaluate the housing situation in their own communities and formulate specific plans to address a variety of housing problems. The book is both a practical step-by-step guide to developing affordable housing and a sophisticated introduction to housing policy. Chapters address design, site selection, project approval, financing, and the history of housing policy in the United States. Planners will find useful information about inclusionary and exclusionary zoning, affordable housing preservation, and the risks and rewards of affordable-home-ownership programs. Mallach also connects the dots among regional economic competitiveness, quality of life, community revitalization, and affordable housing.