Impacts of Inclusionary Zoning

A major component of inclusionary zoning research is evaluating its potential impacts on other land use, Transportation, and planning systems. While inclusionary zoning is likely to have a minor effect on a wide range of indicators, several of these are significantly impacted, including housing mix, income distribution, effects on minority and low-income groups, and Transportation. It should be noted that IZ is not a "one size fits all" strategy; various policies will produce different results in different places. For example, if the IZ policy allows developers to build the affordable units off-site or pay a fee in lieu of, then further income segregation could result if the units are built in solely low-income communities.

Inclusionary zoning stands to create the most benefit in areas with high growth rates, good access to transit and jobs, and little existing affordable housing. Under this circumstance, inclusionary zoning could produce a significant number of units, have a positive effect on increasing transit ridership, and bring people closer to work. While a more sophisticated analysis is required to accurately estimate the impacts of such IZ policies, it can be assumed that an IZ policy may not be appropriate for a city if it creates many affordable units where there are little to no transit or job opportunities. Furthermore, inclusionary zoning in communities with little to no anticipated household growth may not be able to produce a significant quantity of affordable units if the inclusionary zoning policy focuses only on new developments. Communities in ‘closed-in' locales may need to consider a wider variety of affordable housing production mechanisms.