In a study conducted by the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley last year, researchers found that “78% of residential land in the Greater Los Angeles region and 74% in the city of Los Angeles itself was zoned exclusively for single-family homes, prohibiting apartment buildings and other multifamily developments.”
Additionally: “Consistent with prior research, which we summarized in our report, we found a disturbing relationship between the degree of single-family zoning, racial demographics, and racial segregation. In particular, we found that restrictive zoning had a strong exclusionary effect. We found, for example, that municipalities with the highest percentage of single-family-only zoned residential areas had the highest percentage of white residents and the lowest percentage of Black and Latino residents. We also found that the highest observed levels of racial residential segregation occurred in the communities with the highest proportion of single-family zoning.”
Find and download the full report here.
J.T.