Arbitrary Lines - by M Nolan Gray (Paperback)

About the Book

It's time for America to move beyond zoning, argues city planner M. Nolan Gray in Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. With lively explanations, Gray shows why zoning abolition is a necessary--if not sufficient--condition for building more affordable, vibrant, equitable, and sustainable cities.

Gray lays the groundwork for this ambitious cause by clearing up common misconceptions about how American cities regulate growth and examining four contemporary critiques of zoning (its role in increasing housing costs, restricting growth in our most productive cities, institutionalizing racial and economic segregation, and mandating sprawl). He sets out some of the efforts currently underway to reform zoning and charts how land-use regulation might work in the post-zoning American city.

Arbitrary Lines is an invitation to rethink the rules that will continue to shape American life--where we may live or work, who we may encounter, how we may travel. If the task seems daunting, the good news is that we have nowhere to go but up.

Book Synopsis

What if scrapping one flawed policy could bring US cities closer to addressing debilitating housing shortages, stunted growth and innovation, persistent racial and economic segregation, and car-dependent development?

It's time for America to move beyond zoning, argues city planner M. Nolan Gray in Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. With lively explanations and stories, Gray shows why zoning abolition is a necessary--if not sufficient--condition for building more affordable, vibrant, equitable, and sustainable cities.

The arbitrary lines of zoning maps across the country have come to dictate where Americans may live and work, forcing cities into a pattern of growth that is segregated and sprawling.

The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way. Reform is in the air, with cities and states across the country critically reevaluating zoning. In cities as diverse as Minneapolis, Fayetteville, and Hartford, the key pillars of zoning are under fire, with apartment bans being scrapped, minimum lot sizes dropping, and off-street parking requirements disappearing altogether. Some American cities--including Houston, America's fourth-largest city--already make land-use planning work without zoning.

In Arbitrary Lines, Gray lays the groundwork for this ambitious cause by clearing up common confusions and myths about how American cities regulate growth and examining the major contemporary critiques of zoning. Gray sets out some of the efforts currently underway to reform zoning and charts how land-use regulation might work in the post-zoning American city.

Despite mounting interest, no single book has pulled these threads together for a popular audience. In Arbitrary Lines, Gray fills this gap by showing how zoning has failed to address even our most basic concerns about urban growth over the past century, and how we can think about a new way of planning a more affordable, prosperous, equitable, and sustainable American city.

Review Quotes

"Arbitrary Lines is a valuable contribution to the zoning literature and expands on ongoing debates and dialogues on zoning reform..... Gray's vibrant discussion of local examples, disputes, and misinterpretations about zoning makes it a wonderful read and leaves the reader with lingering thoughts on potential solutions."-- "Pennslyvania Geographer"

""Overall, Gray's book is an excellent addition to the literature on housing and land-use regulations.""---Adam Millsap, Forbes

"If you are interested in affordable housing, housing equity, environmental justice, reduction of carbon emissions, adequate public transit, or streets that are safe for walking and cycling, Arbitrary Lines is an excellent resource in understanding how American cities got the way they are and how they might be changed for the better."-- "Resilience"

"If I could get all members of my own city council to read one thing, it would be the chapters of Arbitrary Lines that convey vital messages about zoning's failures and the potential for its reform."-- "Journal of Urban Affairs"

"In Arbitrary Lines, Nolan Gray wrote a compelling argument for urgently reforming the 'stodgy rulebook' that distorts the shape and decreases the welfare of American cities. In addition to his devastating critique of the status quo, Nolan suggests a practical path that would allow urban communities to get out of their current zoning straightjacket. This book is a must-read for all of us who are interested in more innovative and affordable cities."---Alain Bertaud, senior fellow at the Marron Institute of Urban Management and former principal urban planner at the World Bank

"Nolan Gray's Arbitrary Lines could not have arrived at a better time, quenching the thirst of the American public's desire to know more about zoning. It is an accessible introductory text for anyone who wants to understand zoning enough to have informed conversations about its adverse impacts on racial equity, the environment, housing affordability, and economic growth. Undoubtedly, the book has further mainstreamed zoning not just in policy debates but also in casual conversations."-- "Housing and Society"

"The major purpose of Nolan Gray's new book, Arbitrary Lines, is to show that by limiting housing construction, zoning increases rents by limiting housing supply, accelerates suburban sprawl by reducing density and pricing Americans out of walkable areas, and slows economic growth by making it expensive for Americans to move to prosperous areas. On each count, Gray makes a persuasive (to me) case."-- "Planetizen"

"Excellent new book."---Matt Yglesias, Slow Boring

"In Arbitrary Lines, Gray provides a compelling case against the parochial zoning rules that have shaped Americans' lives, from our homes to our budgets to the work opportunities available to us. While the costs of zoning become clearer each year, few have questioned the paradigm of local policymakers determining the quantity and type of building that will be permitted on the private land in their jurisdictions. Gray steps in with a new way of thinking about urban land use and a road map for a future unconstrained by zoning."---Emily Hamilton, Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University

"Nolan Gray has the insights of Jane Jacobs and the prose style of Mark Twain. In his aptly-titled new book, Arbitrary Lines, Gray argues that zoning in America is a disease masquerading as a cure. He also proposes a post-zoning style of planning for fair, sustainable, and livable cities."---Donald Shoup, Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles; author of "The High Cost of Free Parking"

"Arbitrary Lines is a comprehensive, well-grounded, and logically organized critique of the rigid and indeed arbitrary way in which Euclidean zoning structures our communities and shapes our lives. Elegantly written, concise, and witty, Gray's book is a useful introduction to zoning's history and current state...If you live outside the world of professional architects, landscape architects, urban designers, and planners and yet you wonder why our cities are built the way they are and if, further, you have time to read one book on the subject, Arbitrary Lines, with its engaging writing style, may well top your list."-- "Journal of the American Planning Association"

"Arbitrary Lines is at once a primer and a manifesto, a highly readable introduction to zoning's history and harms as well as a bracing call for a post-zoning city."-- "American Conservative"

"A provocation and a prescriptive treatise."-- "Common Edge"

"Powerfully argued book."-- "Orange County Register"

"A welcome manifesto for rethought urban spaces and their outliers, bringing social justice into the discussion."-- "Kirkus Reviews"

About the Author

M. Nolan Gray is a professional city planner and an expert in urban land-use regulation. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Gray previously worked on the front lines of zoning as a planner in New York City. He now serves as an Affiliated Scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he advises state and local policymakers on land-use policy. Gray is a contributor to Market Urbanism and a widely published author, with work appearing in outlets such as The Atlantic, Bloomberg Citylab, and The Guardian. He lives in Los Angeles, California and is originally from Lexington, Kentucky.