While it may not have been widely known in professional planning circles 30 or 40 years ago, it is now an accepted fact amongst professional planners and sociologists that zoning as it is practiced today, especially low-density residential zoning, has roots in racist land-use policies. There were other, more obviously abhorrent regulatory practices that were outlawed in 1968, but the less obvious and just as problematic practices are still having impacts now, even in Anchorage.
Now that we have identified flaws in the system we’ve used to regulate housing development for decades, and at a time when our own Municipality of Anchorage Planning Department has suggested that fourplexes (not just duplexes) in single-family zones might be a more appropriate response to the housing crisis, do we not owe it to ourselves to address the issue?
I believe that if we take a moment to listen to each other and work together, we can find ways to welcome new neighbors while preserving the things we love about our neighborhoods. The two goals are not mutually exclusive.
— Mélisa Babb
Anchorage
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