Date of Award

Spring 2020

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Historical & Political Studies; College of Arts & Sciences

First Advisor

Amy Widestrom

Abstract

Land-use zoning policies are vastly important to how society works, in that they determine what goes where. According to the literature around this topic, zoning policies have implications for the environment, economy, and concerning discrimination. Therefore, as zoning policies evolve, they should try to adjust for these three factors. Theoretically, zoning policies should evolve in the same way throughout all 50 states, but this is not the case. The zoning policies on the West coast of the United States have evolved to compensate for these factors, while the rest of the U.S. has not. In this paper, I use the process-tracing method to create a timeline that answers the question: why are zoning policies on the west coast more reformed than the rest of the United States? I conclude that the main time points that have resulted in the position of zoning policies today are: the creation of National Parks, the Supreme Court Case Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Company, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, historic preservation, the current policymakers, and advocacy groups.

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Zoning Policy Reform in the U.S.: the West Versus the Rest

Land-use zoning policies are vastly important to how society works, in that they determine what goes where. According to the literature around this topic, zoning policies have implications for the environment, economy, and concerning discrimination. Therefore, as zoning policies evolve, they should try to adjust for these three factors. Theoretically, zoning policies should evolve in the same way throughout all 50 states, but this is not the case. The zoning policies on the West coast of the United States have evolved to compensate for these factors, while the rest of the U.S. has not. In this paper, I use the process-tracing method to create a timeline that answers the question: why are zoning policies on the west coast more reformed than the rest of the United States? I conclude that the main time points that have resulted in the position of zoning policies today are: the creation of National Parks, the Supreme Court Case Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Company, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, historic preservation, the current policymakers, and advocacy groups.