U.S. Zoning, Explained

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Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos and Hannah Woolsey
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.

[CityBeautiful]

This is a re-make of a video I did almost exactly 6 years ago! It was the second video on my channel. I redid it because 1) it's popular in classrooms but increasingly out of date; and 2) I can make better videos now. Don't worry, I haven't run out of new video ideas. :)

[AlexPacker]

As a British kid playing Sim City, I thought the zoning was just a game mechanism because it would be too complicated to have mixed use buildings. No, that's how basically the whole US is. I didn't understand it until I had visited

[repoilify]

Just imagine how many homes, restaurants, jobs, stores, parks and schools we could fit in a Costco parking lot.

[yogtheterrible]

This video is a pretty good demonstration of why Saruman was defeated. Orthanc was zoned for Residential and Institutional as the chart confirms, but his forges obviously weren't permitted in either residential or institutional. What's more, Saruman destroyed nearby open spaces by using the trees to feed those forges. This caused the council members of the local municipality, Fangorn Forest, to meet and order the destruction of the forges and the forfeiture of Orthanc. You really have to follow zoning, everyone.

[ScottAtwood]

Can you talk about Japan’s zoning system at some point? It is a fascinating and in my opinion, highly successful alternative to North American exclusive zoning.

[venkatehgunda]

I am from India where zoning laws are almost non-existent, or rather nobody gives a care to follow it. In my observation, every community slowly evolved to be a mixed-use, some with few office spaces and commercial units, some with one or two industries and housing for the workers and others with mostly mixed commercial and residential spaces. It is more chaotic but much more sensible as anything you need is a couple minutes walking distance away.

[yuriydee]

I always find it so ironic how a country that prides itself soooo much on personal freedom has so many laws that prohibit personal freedoms....

[Red_Ryan_Red]

I really hope more people in the states can understand why the zoning here is so restrictive and detrimental. I wish local governments could just copy more functional zoning regulations from another country.

[BrttM]

You left out a major point when talking about the bad side of zoning, and that is property prices skyrocketing. And that is the _goal_ of a lot of zoning in the US. Home owners tell local governments to ban apartments near them to "protect their property values", but the reason apartments lower property values has a lot more to do with supply and demand than apartments being a blight on the area. It's artificial scarcity. With regular home owners greatly outnumbering people who own other kinds of property, and having more financial stake than renters, they dominate local politics when it comes to land use, and use that power to increase the value of their "investment".

I see many people on the internet complain about greedy landlords, or investment firms and foreign individuals buying houses as investment, but that stuff in minor compared to the extremely limited supply caused by the fact that most residential land is zoned for low density residential, with even duplexes banned in most areas.

[AnymMusic]

When you thought City Skylines simplified the zoning system for players, but it turns out nope... it really is THIS simplified and overlooked

[nitehawk]

6:27 Pittsburgh's Strip District is a great example of an industrial district that was changed into commercial, then into residential.

[jnm]

I'm surprised Orthanc is allowed in lower density residential areas. I would have thought it would violate height restrictions.

[Cameronnp]

I am Korean, Japan and Korea also make land use plans when they make huge new cities. Commercial areas, high-density areas such as apartment condominiums, low-density areas such as houses, and mixed commercial areas.

The difference from the United States is that residential and mixed areas also have small zones to build commercial facilities that are essential and convenient for people to live in. For example, a convenience store, a bakery, a small restaurant, a laundry, etc. So you can buy basic necessities without driving.

I think it would be good to have these basic amenities in large residential villages in the United States. It can be noisy, so you can set up a zone at the entrance or end of the village and create relevant compliance regulations. ❤

[Maxime_K-G]

No, way. I just looked up your video about European zoning today since we were learning about zoning in college.

[timothydavis]

Houston’s zoning laws always interested me… particularly when I showed up to a church next to a sewage processing facility

[youtindia]

How US Zoning Works
Answer: It doesn't

[katyoutnabout]

Very nice transition to the razors ;) that was *ahem smooth

[dukeofcreepington]

I live in an area that's currently in a severe drought. This is the primary reason people give besides "Keeping the small town feel" of my small town when arguing against medium density/mixed use development. Would love to see a video on how housing density/usage affects water usage.

I also often see that these videos are oriented towards cities and leave out rural America. I would really love a video dedicated to why small town America doesn't need to be car centric

[pongop]

Thanks for another great video! I would love to see your take on floating cities next! =)

[definitelynotacrab]

Really like the redo, turned out great!