A recent article by law professor Richard Schragger invokes the book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, in defense of zoning. Schragger writes that, according to Jacobs, city neighborhoods flourish due to the “diversity of land uses in space” and zoning must protect these neighborhoods' qualities through “zoning for diversity,” which requires “limiting development, controlling density, and preserving historic structures.”
If a neighborhood becomes too popular, the ultimate result is the “self-destruction of diversity” or, in Schragger’s words, “the local features that create housing demand are eliminated in meeting that demand — as when the construction of high-rises replaces smaller, older, mixed-use buildings.”
