Limits Within the City: The Exclusionary Impacts of Zoning and Rezoning in New York City

Abstract

Without a form of comprehensive planning, New York City regulates its built environment through a language of building use, height, and bulk. It is, at once, a highly technical, municipal tool, as well as an embodiment of the social relations and activities within the city. Under Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor de Blasio, zoning has become the preferred method for “harnessing the private sector to produce affordable housing” in the face of an escalating affordable housing crisis. Over the past few years, a growing housing advocacy movement has gained momentum with recent legal victories that have overturned zoning decisions, a rare rebuke to the city’s real estate industry and private sector.

New York City zoning can be traced back to its exclusionary roots during its inception in 1916. The city’s market-driven zoning policies today have faced fierce blowback from local residents, who cite that its exclusionary effects are furthering displacement. Through a tracing of New York City zoning from 1916 to today, I explore the exclusionary implications embedded within the structure of zoning itself. I contend that contemporary zoning’s market-driven mechanisms that are dependent on capital accumulation exacerbate uneven urban geography. Through examinations of policy reviews, comparative statistics, and conversations with housing advocates, I argue that the city’s neoliberal, “color-blind” zoning policies further race- and class-based disparities.