Regulatory islands: a case study in tactical community zoning

Despite the clear environmental and economic benefits of denser forms of housing, the ability to construct such housing remains elusive. Restrictive zoning policies and local coalitions of Not in My Backyard activists make the construction of dense housing within established neighbourhoods a near impossibility in jurisdictions throughout the United States. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how architects might leverage community coalition building and the critical interpretation or ‘hacking’ of local zoning ordinances to realise dense, infill housing projects even within otherwise highly conservative policy environments. Using Pier Vittorio Aureli’s history of settlement form and property rights as an initial contextual framework, the article outlines how infill housing might adopt an alternate view of housing development, subverting the primacy typically assigned to individual private property rights and financial speculation. Sited on an infill lot within one of Lincoln, Nebraska’s older neighbourhoods, the project relies on a non-normative, strategic implementation of a Community Unit Plan zoning mechanism to enlist neighbourhood support and establish higher levels of allowable density. This, in combination with the implementation of a Community Land Trust, allows the project to introduce a greater quantity and diversity of housing types that offer possibilities for home ownership, affordable rental opportunities and even temporary or supportive housing in areas historically dedicated solely to single-family housing models. Ultimately, the significance of the project rests not in its formal novelty but in its demonstration of an immediate and attainable means through which denser forms of housing might be realised.