APA's New Equity in Zoning Policy Guide

Link to Zoning Equity Workshop Materials

Since its inception, zoning has tended to divide Americans based on income and ability to pay. Since lower incomes are correlated with race, ethnicity, gender, and level of physical ability, zoning tends to separate Americans based on those factors as well. In many cases, the zoning rules, procedures, and maps that create disproportionate impacts on historically disadvantaged and vulnerable communities are embedded in facially neutral language deep in the "weeds" of technical zoning language, where it is difficult to identify and remove. To address these issues, in 2019, APA approved its Planning for Equity Policy Guide, and in late 2022, approved a companion guide addressing the specifics of zoning rather than planning.

This presentation discusses how to apply the Equity in Zoning Policy Guide through practical examples addressing use regulations, development standards, rezoning and development review procedures, and zoning map amendments. In each case, a specific scenario applies approved policies to specific situations to identify how to reduce or remove discriminatory impacts and – equally importantly – avoid causing unintended negative impacts on historically disadvantaged and vulnerable populations.

NPC Peer Reviewers assigned this presentation a learning level of Advanced. For more on learning-level descriptions, visit our General Information Page.