Given my vehement opposition to zoning, one might think that I would be cheering a plan from the Biden Administration aimed at reducing single-family zoning. But there is little reason to cheer this plan. Biden has not suddenly become an advocate of property rights.
The stated goal of Biden’s plan is to allow greater housing density in an effort to address the affordable housing crisis. Single-family zoning mandates that a parcel of land can only hold a single-family house. It is common for more than 60 percent of the land zoned for residential has a single-family designation. This reduces the supply of housing, and it also increases the cost of the available land. Eliminating single-family zoning would ostensibly give developers the freedom to build townhouses, duplexes, and other multi-family housing where a single-family house once stood. However, freedom for housing producers isn’t the goal, and it likely won’t be the result.
Consider: If eliminating single-family zoning is such a good idea—and it is—then why must Biden bribe cities to take action? Why not make the case for repealing single-family zoning and encourage cities to act accordingly? The answer is: this is a power grab.
The plan is still being developed, so details are lacking. But if Washington is providing grants and tax incentives, then we can be certain that strings will be attached. And the puppet masters in Washington will be manipulating and controlling the actions of local government officials. The result will be greater federal control over housing.
If Biden truly wants to solve the affordable housing crisis, he can do it without spending hundreds of billions of dollars. All he has to do is pass legislation that makes zoning (and all other land-use regulations) illegal in the United States. The Biden Administration is proposing a piecemeal approach and many cities may not participate. A national repeal of zoning would free housing producers everywhere.
Biden won’t choose this approach because he isn’t concerned with freeing the housing producers. He is concerned with consolidating more power in Washington. And that is what his plan will accomplish.