Accepting and resisting densification: The importance of project-related factors and the contextualizing role of neighbourhoods

Abstract

Densifying existing settlements is a top planning priority worldwide. Its main goals include protecting undeveloped land, reducing CO2 emissions, and the provision of housing. Despite a common acceptance of densification as a planning strategy, the local implementation of densification tends to provoke local opposition. Based on the analysis of a survey on densification preferences (including an adaptive conjoint experiment), this paper examines how residents assess potential densification projects in the Canton of Zurich in Switzerland. The results indicate that residents tend to accept densification in general, but not in their own neighbourhood. Residents in urban neighbourhoods are more likely to accept densification, and if they resist it, they tend to be driven by NIMBY behaviour. The higher likelihood of resistance to densification in suburban and rural contexts seems to be based on either broader anti-growth sentiments or on NIMBY behaviour. Different project characteristics (project-related factors) can explain residents’ acceptance of and resistance to densification projects, yet the neighbourhood types in which residents live moderate the impact of these project-related factors. Our findings distinguish between the preferences of residents who live in different residential neighbourhood types and can thus provide planners with a starting point from which to craft context-dependent densification projects tailored to these different neighbourhood types.