Bree'sMatrix1

Part 1: The cultural and environmental impacts of urban zoning Zoning is a planning device used by local governments to designate specific uses for certain areas of a city and its surrounding region. The most popular type of zoning in the United States is Euclidean zoning which is characterized by its separation of residential, commercial, and industrial establishments. This disconnect between work and home inspired by zoning has led to urban sprawl, long commutes, and emphasis on neighborhood homogeneity. The image above shows a picture of the zoning system of the city of Bend, Oregon in 1960, a time when Euclidean zoning was very popular, in the background. The image to the right in the foreground shows differences in residential zoning by density done by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning. The center foreground image shows the slums of Detroit; in the photo you can see the distinct difference between the zones that include low income housing and the zones that include high density commercial buildings. The photo in the left foreground shows a sign located in the Great Boston area representing the exclusion effects of urban zoning. Why Zoning?: The need for zoning originated in New York City in the early 20th century. With a growing presence of warehouses and factories due to the industrial revolution, industry spaces began to encroach upon nice residential areas and shopping districts. The concept of single-use zoning where land uses of the same type are grouped together was established with the Zoning Resolution of 1916. This document established height and setback controls and designated residential districts that excluded certain stores and buildings. This single-use zoning, also known as Euclidean zoning, became a model for growing urban communities in the United States facing similar problems. Zoning and Urban Sprawl: As a result of Euclidean style zoning that many growing cities used in their early years of development, residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial areas are now separated from each other. Evident in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, and more, large tracts of land are devoted to a single use so that the places where people live, work, and shop are far away from each other. In addition to single-use zoning, low-density zoning became popular with the 1961 Zoning Resolution. Low-density zoning meant low-density housing; low density commonly refers to single family homes on large lots of land. Some characteristics of low-density zoning are high dependency on automobiles for transportation and job sprawl. Because more automobiles are used, more land is designated for parking and highways leading to an increase in urbanized land at a faster rate than population. More cars allow zoning for industry to relocate from a city’s Central Business District to the suburban periphery. This is especially desirable for companies looking for more affordable land with room for potential expansion. Zoning also allowed neighborhoods to adopt private governance. The second half of the 20th century saw a rise in private neighborhood associations and home owners associations. HOAs could be created as part of a neighborhood’s original plan; the land use and therefor public zoning are distinguished more by the manner of their creation than by their regulatory contents. Private housing associations regulated small-scale interactions within their community boundaries while county governments were left to focus on “macro” services like highways and water supply. Stated in the book //Private Neighborhoods and the Transformation of Local Government//, “zoning created the power to exclude others from the use of a common neighborhood environment” (136). This book emphasizes the shift from how land was seen as a public entity to how it is seen in modern times: a transferable property. The rise in the use of zones has further accentuates this shift. The negative impacts of zoning range from automobile emissions, increase in traffic and congestion, decrease in social capital, decrease in land and water quantity and quality, and increased infrastructure costs, just to name a few. To expand on the decrease in land and water quantity and quality, larger areas consumed by sprawling suburbs more wildlife habitats are displaced. With extensive use of impervious surfaces such as highways and houses less rainfall water to be absorbed into ground water resources. This seriously threatens the quantity of water supplies which is a growing problem worldwide. Water pollution is also a product of zoning due to gasoline and motor oil runoff from parking lots and roads. The rise of zoning in concentrated urban areas and moreover the cause of suburban sprawl in the surrounding areas have given rise to many sustainability issues that heavily afflict millions of people and the Earth.

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