CityLab Daily: How Backlash Reversed a Florida City’s Zoning Reforms
Also today: Tweets show where people are happiest and saddest in big cities, and retailers are finally taking forever chemicals out of raincoats.
Lawmakers in Gainesville, Florida, passed a plan to end exclusionary zoning. Then came the backlash.
Photographer: Sean Pavone/iStockphoto
In August, Gainesville became the first city in Florida to eliminate single-family zoning citywide, in an effort to increase housing supply in the college town. Just months later, new city commissioners voted to reverse the new ordinances.
The decision came after immense backlash from local residents and Republican state leaders, who threatened state preemption and legal challenges after its passage. The pushback against recent trends of liberalizing zoning could hold lessons for other YIMBY advocacy efforts, writes Patrick Spauster. Today on CityLab: How Backlash Reversed a Florida City’s Reforms to Allow Denser Housing