Justice

Braving the New World of Performance-Based Zoning

Conventional zoning is an outdated barrier against good urbanism, but there's disagreement on the best way forward.
Serdar Tibet/Shutterstock.com

Today's topic is zoning. But before you reach for that double espresso, consider that there is really some exciting stuff going on in the field, fueled by Silicon Valley-level innovative thinking.

Most people might think of zoning as the province of white-haired volunteer boards, but in an increasingly developed world, it has a larger importance. Codes that guide development are the DNA of human settlement.