Land use and zoning

Policymakers should make land-use and zoning decisions that promote mixed-use communities with affordable and equitable housing and transportation options. They should provide sufficient flexibility to enable innovative housing and transportation options. 

Comprehensive land-use plans that address housing and transportation should guide community design and development decisions. These plans should address related issues, including public health, pollution, and climate change. Policymakers should conduct a health impact assessment for land-use, transportation, and community design projects. They should support coordinated efforts to improve population health by adopting a Health in All Policy. 

Policymakers should use inclusionary zoning to require developers to set aside some units for people with low and moderate incomes. Those units should be developed on-site. 

If developers are instead allowed to pay fees into a housing trust fund, those fees should be: 

• at least as high as the full cost of developing the affordable housing on-site, and 
• used to build affordable housing in the community where the market-rate development is located. 

Policymakers should also use other zoning tools, including affordable housing districts and density bonuses, to promote the construction of high-quality affordable housing. 

States should encourage changes in local zoning regulations to permit the development and location of accessory dwelling units, manufactured homes, multifamily projects, shared housing, and other missing middle housing options, consistent with appropriate planning practices and fair housing laws.