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Growth Management
and Affordable Housing
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james a. johnson metro series
The Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy at the Brookings
Institution is integrating research and practical experience into a pol-
icy agenda for cities and metropolitan areas. By bringing fresh analy-
ses and policy ideas to the public debate, the center hopes to inform
key decisionmakers and civic leaders in ways that will spur meaning-
ful change in our nation’s communities.
As part of this effort, the Center on Urban and Metropolitan
Policy has established the James A. Johnson Metro Series to introduce new perspectives and
policy thinking on current issues and attempt to lay the foundation for longer-term policy
reforms. The series examines traditional urban issues, such as neighborhood assets and cen-
tral city competitiveness, as well as larger metropolitan concerns, such as regional growth,
development, and employment patterns. The James A. Johnson Metro Series consists of
concise studies and collections of essays designed to appeal to a broad audience. While these
studies are formally reviewed, some are not verified like other research publications. As
with all publications, the judgments, conclusions, and recommendations presented in the
studies are solely those of the authors and should not be attributed to the trustees, officers,
or other staff members of the Institution.
Also available in this series:
Edgeless Cities: Exploring the Elusive Metropolis
Robert E. Lang
Evaluating Gun Policy: Effects on Crime and Violence
Jens Ludwig and Philip J. Cook, editors
Growth and Convergence in Metropolitan America
Janet Rothenberg Pack
Laws of the Landscape: How Policies Shape Cities in Europe and America
Pietro S. Nivola
Low-Income Homeownership: Examining the Unexamined Goal
Nicolas P. Retsinas and Eric S. Belsky, editors
Redefining Urban and Suburban America: Evidence from Census 2000
Bruce Katz and Robert E. Lang, editors
Reflections on Regionalism
Bruce J. Katz, editor
Savings for the Poor: The Hidden Benefits of Electronic Banking
Michael A. Stegman
Still Stuck in Traffic: Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion
Anthony Downs
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Growth Management
and Affordable Housing
Do They Conflict?
Anthony Downs
Editor
brookings institution press
Washington, D.C.
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Copyright © 2004
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
www.brookings.edu
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Growth management and affordable housing : do they conflict? /
Anthony Downs, editor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8157-1932-9 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN 0-8157-1933-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. City planning. 2. Housing. I. Downs, Anthony. II. Title.
HT166.G74 2004
307.1'216—dc22 2004004191
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials: ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Typeset in Adobe Garamond
Composition by R. Lynn Rivenbark
Macon, Georgia
Printed by Edwards Brothers
Lillington, North Carolina
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Contents
Foreword vii
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
1 Introduction 1
Anthony Downs
2 Does Growth Management Aid or Thwart
the Provision of Affordable Housing? 20
Daniel Carlson and Shishir Mathur
Comment by Gerrit J. Knaap 66
Comment by Samuel R. Staley 69
3 Smart Growth and Affordable Housing 82
Richard P. Voith and David L. Crawford
Comment by Michael H. Schill 102
Comment by Robert W. Burchell and Sahan Mukherji 106
v
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4 The Link between Growth Management
and Housing Affordability: The Academic Evidence 117
Arthur C. Nelson, Rolf Pendall, Casey J. Dawkins,
and Gerrit J. Knaap
Comment by William A. Fischel 158
Comment by Robert Lang 167
5 The Effects of Affordable and Multifamily Housing
on Market Values of Nearby Homes 176
George C. Galster
Comment by Ingrid Gould Ellen 201
Comment by Jill Khadduri 204
6 The Promise and Practice of Inclusionary Zoning 212
Douglas R. Porter
Comment by Karen Destorel Brown 249
Comment by Michael Pyatok 253
7 Growth Management, Smart Growth,
and Affordable Housing 264
Anthony Downs
Contributors 275
Index 277
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Foreword
S
governments are the gatekeepers to much of the
affordable housing supply for America’s working families. Although they
do not directly construct affordable housing, those governments can influ-
ence the type and amount of housing that does get built, where it is built, the
pace of its development, and the cost and type of infrastructure used to sup-
port it.
Local governments do this mainly through the many regulatory policies
and practices used to influence the nature and pace of growth occurring
within their boundaries. Such regulatory policies constitute local “growth
management.” For the most part, growth management policies seek to
enhance and preserve the quality of life of the residents of local communities
and to protect the environment. Regrettably, when these policies deliberately
aim to limit the amount of local growth or make it hard for lower-income
households to move into neighborhoods, such restrictive, or “growth con-
trol,” policies also limit or may even prevent the development of housing, fre-
quently called “workforce housing,” to serve the needs of hard-working
American families.
The outcome has been a seeming paradox. Many communities across the
country are experiencing rapid growth, yet overwhelming evidence shows
that most of these same communities also suffer from growing shortages of
affordable, or workforce, housing. As a result, large numbers of lower-income
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families cannot afford to live in the communities where they work, or where
they would like to live. The Advisory Commission on Regulatory Barriers to
Affordable Housing, popularly known as the Kemp Commission, docu-
mented these barriers a dozen years ago in a groundbreaking report, Not in
My Backyard: Removing Barriers to Affordable Housing. Regrettably, few bar-
riers have fallen since that time; in fact, the situation has probably become
worse.
Because of the growing urgency of this problem, the Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has made removing regulatory
barriers to affordable housing a top policy priority. And to begin to address
the issues involved, the department, with the Fannie Mae Foundation and
the National Association of Realtors, worked with Anthony Downs and the
Brookings Institution to bring together researchers and practitioners in a
symposium on the relationship between growth management and affordable
housing. The symposium’s goals were (1) to examine whether conflicts exist
between communities’ growth management efforts and the need to provide
decent and safe affordable housing, and (2) to identify ways to reduce such
conflicts.
The results of those proceedings are published in this volume. As usual,
Brookings and Downs have achieved, with distinction, the purpose of this
symposium. The research papers are stimulating and provocative, and
Downs provides an insightful synthesis of the papers and discussions in his
introduction, which summarizes the key issues that the public and private
sectors must address in confronting the serious regulatory barriers that exist
across the country.
This symposium is only one facet of the department’s broader effort to
improve the availability of affordable housing. HUD also has launched a
new program, entitled America’s Affordable Communities Initiative:
Bringing Homes within Reach through Regulatory Reform. Through this
initiative, the department seeks to address those federal, state, and local reg-
ulatory barriers that prevent the approval, construction, and availability of
affordable housing. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson has announced a
wide-ranging strategy to achieve the goals of this initiative—an increase in
the supply of low-cost homes and apartments available to more of America’s
working families.
The department will work in partnership with state and local govern-
ments and community interests to identify and reduce barriers preventing
the development of affordable housing or driving up costs. Many communi-
ties have already initiated efforts, including public-private partnerships. The
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department recognizes and respects that real estate development regulation is
primarily a state and local government function. Yet HUD also believes it can
play a constructive role in identifying regulatory barriers and providing solu-
tions and incentives for their removal.
Clearly, addressing only these issues will not solve all affordable housing
needs. Removing regulatory barriers must be viewed as a complement to,
not a substitute for, other efforts to provide affordable housing. For many
lower-income families, federal, state, and local subsidies are also fundamen-
tal tools for meeting these affordable housing needs. However, addressing
regulatory barriers to housing affordability is a necessary component of any
overall national housing policy.
The department expects that this publication will advance and illuminate
the discussion on how state and local growth management policies, however
well intentioned, can become regulatory barriers. Such knowledge can be the
first step in overcoming them.
U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development
