num_pages: 256
description: [Hirt] provides a succinct overview of the history of zoning in the US. She compares zoning in the US to five European countriesEngland France Sweden Germany and Russiato highlight its distinctiveness. The story of American zoning reveals its origins in the early-20th century fashioned to maintain property values and protect Americans' investments in their homes. The book tells the story of how local state and federal governments have contributed to the use of zoning to preserve the single-family detached home connecting zoning to other policies such as transportation and home loan financing. This is a terrific book for collections on housing land use zoning and law.CHOICEWhy are American cities suburbs and towns so distinct? Compared to European cities those in the United States are characterized by lower densities and greater distances; neat geometric layouts; an abundance of green space; a greater level of social segregation reflected in space; andperhaps most noticeablya greater share of individual single-family detached housing. In Zoned in the USA  Sonia A. Hirt argues that zoning laws are among the important but understudied reasons for the cross-continental differences.Hirt shows that rather than being imported from Europe U.S. municipal zoning law was in fact an institution that quickly developed its own distinctly American profile. A distinct spatial culture of individualismfounded on an ideal of separate single-family residences apart from the dirt and turmoil of industrial and agricultural productionhas driven much of municipal regulation defined land-use and ultimately shaped American life. Hirt explores municipal zoning from a comparative and international perspective drawing on archival resources and contemporary land-use laws from England Germany France Australia Russia Canada and Japan to challenge assumptions about American cities and the laws that guide them.
language: English
title: Zoned in the USA: The Origins and Implications of American Land-Use Regulation
publisher: Cornell University Press