Regulating Scarcity: The Effects of Zoning on Urban Land Market Changes

Abstract

This paper explores the dynamics between zoning, land values and neighborhood change from 1960 to 1970. Using a sample of 352 central city and suburban census tracts contained within the Chicago SMSA, this paper examines the influence of zoning on neighborhood land value appreciation and the independent effects of land values and zoning on neighborhood housing changes. Findings show that zoning influenced land value appreciation over the decade within both central city and suburban areas. Central city zoning and land values operated jointly to influence neighborhood housing changes while in suburban areas, zoning mechanisms overrode market forces in influencing neighborhood development patterns. This paper demonstrates the forcefulness of the politics of the urban land market in regulating both land scarcity and land value changes and in influencing metropolitan spatial distributions.