Single-family zoning is a legal practice that prohibits the construction or use of multi-family housing — such as duplexes, multiplexes, and condominiums – on a specific parcel of land. While single-family zoning allows homeowners to preserve home values, prevent unwanted development, and maintain "neighborhood character," it has resulted in the geographic concentration of poverty in minority communities. This practice has led to a nationwide housing shortage. Maryland needs to eliminate single-family zoning to address racial disparities in access to housing and tackle the state’s 96,000-unit housing shortage.
History Behind the Practice
In 19th-century America, before cities adopted modern zoning practices, construction was lightly regulated and frequently matched demand. Developers built single-family homes for upper and middle-class families, with parcels of land apportioned based on class. For working-class households, housing types varied from small cottages and shotgun houses to simple frame homes. Middle housing was more common in urban areas — defined as small multi-family units like townhouses, multiplexes, and courtyard buildings. In more densely populated areas, developers constructed apartment buildings, ranging in value from luxury apartments to working-class tenements.
Local governments introduced land-use zoning in the early 20th century to promote low-density housing for working-class families on the city outskirts. However, upper-income white property owners, developers, and local officials almost immediately used it to preserve "neighborhood character," often excluding residents of different socioeconomic statuses and races while preventing undesirable developments like factories.
Racial Segregation and the Popularity of Single-Family Zoning
While the Supreme Court ruled against raced-base zoning in Buchanan v. Warley (1917), citing an individual's entitlement to "life, liberty, or property," the court later permitted land-use zoning, which segregates by building type.
Judicial rulings, paired with Federal housing policies, deprived Black communities from purchasing or maintaining single-family homes. In 1933, on the cusp of a housing crisis, the federal government launched a program to increase and segregate America's housing stock. According to Author Richard Rothstein on National Public Radio (NPR), "the government's efforts were 'primarily designed to provide housing to white, lower-middle-class families'… African-Americans and other people of color were left out of the new suburban communities — and pushed instead into urban housing projects."
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), established in 1934, granted extensive loans to developers to construct single-family homes in greenfields, or untouched land, with the intent to sell exclusively to white Americans. Racial covenants prohibiting Black homeowners from purchasing property and redlining, the federal practice of refusing to insure mortgages in Black communities, resulted in long-lasting patterns of racial segregation in the suburbs and lower homeownership rates for Black Americans. Single-family zoning continues to uphold racial segregation by codifying development patterns.
Single-family zoning has lasting impacts on Maryland Communities
According to the New York Times, 75% of the United States is zoned for single-family use. Maryland is no different.
A map of single-family zoning in the Washington, DC region. Hadden Loh, Tracy. “Zoning in the Washington D.C. Region.” Greater Greater Washington, 18 Dec. 2018, https://ggwash.org/view/70232/washington-region-single-family-zoning-an-update
Single-family zoning has contributed to Maryland’s critical 96,000 housing unit shortage. According to the Moore-Miller administration, “Maryland has underproduced housing at a rate of 5,600 units per year on average, leading to higher living costs and exacerbating housing instability.” These findings coincide with national research, which indicates that exclusionary housing policies — like single-family zoning — prompt less development, constraining supply and leading to more expensive housing. In a 2005 study in Manhattan, economists found that zoning restrictions artificially increased the prices of condominiums by 50 percent. More recent research (2021), indicates that this “zoning tax,” has artificially raised home prices by an estimated $400,000 in San Francisco, $200,000 in Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle, and $80,000 in Chicago, Philadelphia, Portland, and Washington, D.C.
Housing shortages are limiting economic growth; Maryland has the 6th highest cost of housing and the 7th highest cost of living in the nation, ranking just below states like New York and California. According to Comptroller Brooke Lierman’s State of the Economy report, Maryland is experiencing outmigration — with more residents leaving than moving into the state — due to surges in the cost of living, and in particular, housing. In Montgomery County, MD, these losses are critical. Between 2004 and 2019, Montgomery County’s total number of jobs grew by just 5%, compared to 21% in similar counties nationwide. This migration trend poses a serious issue from an economic development standpoint as the state loses critical tax revenue, potential businesses, and workforce talent.
Exclusionary zoning policies like single-family zoning have led to the geographic concentration of poverty in minority communities, largely because homeownership is the primary driver of wealth for most Americans. According to the Census Bureau, homeowners have a median net wealth of 80 times greater than that of renters. Across the nation, Black Americans are statistically less likely to own a home. In Maryland, the white homeownership rate is 77% compared to 51% for Black individuals. Discriminatory housing policies, which prevented Black Americans from homeownership, are likely to blame. In 2017, Black Americans earned 60% of the average white income, yet Black wealth accounted for only 5% of white wealth. This stark difference is largely attributable to federal housing policies that barred Black families from building generational wealth through homeownership.
As Maryland faces critical housing shortages, high costs of living, and outmigration, relaxed zoning standards are needed to ramp up housing production. Single-family zoning — a long-held practice in the state — is antiquated, resulting in less efficient land use and the preservation of white wealth. To embody our ideals of a “fearlessly forward” Maryland, we need to deconstruct systems of power and carve a path toward a more prosperous, equitable state.
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