In January 2025, Mayor Duggan cut the ribbon at La Joya Gardens, a new affordable housing complex with 53 apartments, with rent as low as $540, as part of the city’s $1.5 billion investment in affordable housing. But it could have done more — 11 more homes could have been built if not for the city’s zoning code, which mandated the project include a 40-space parking lot, despite being within blocks of groceries, retail, jobs and services.

Detroit is at a crossroads. Investment is flowing into the city along with new residents, and the next mayor of Detroit will lead a new chapter after 12 years under Duggan’s leadership. To harness Detroit’s potential, and ensure that long-term residents share in its growth, we must modernize our zoning code through the Zone Detroit project. This is one of the goals of our organization Strong Towns Detroit, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to build strong, resilient, and prosperous neighborhoods in Detroit and the greater metro area.

The zoning code regulates how buildings are built and used. When Detroit introduced zoning in the 1940s, it protected residents by separating heavy industry from homes. However, it is now a large collection of arbitrary rules that hold the city back. 

Parking lot requirements like those for La Joya Gardens are one example – but the rules span many areas of life. In R1 zones, you cannot build multi-family units like duplexes, triplexes and Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). In R2 zones, where duplexes are allowed, you cannot build a quadruplex. Outside designated business and mixed-use zones, you cannot build a grocery store or restaurant. The city grants exemptions, but they are time-consuming and expensive. 

Zoning has major implications for 1) affordable housing, 2) creating new small businesses, and 3) the city’s budget.

Detroit has a growing affordable housing shortage, but zoning and permitting processes consume a large part of development budgets, increasing rent. Additionally, overregulation favors large corporate developers; for cash-strapped small developers, these costs can be the reason a project is delayed, scaled back or scrapped entirely. These same policies disincentivize homeowners from adding units to their own properties. Over the long term, we know increasing supply lowers costs for housing across the board, including market-rate housing. We should allow more medium-density multi-family housing and loosen city-imposed parking lot minimums. Updating our zoning ordinance would enable builders to recover their investment faster, reinvest more quickly, and spur more building activity, lowering costs.

For example, plans for the Meijer Rivertown Market, opened in 2021 on East Jefferson, originally included 200 units of housing with underground parking– a mixed-use development pattern common in other cities like Philadelphia. However, they removed the housing, citing costs:- building underground parking is expensive, and the housing would have ballooned the required size of the parking lot. 

Cutting red tape for small businesses is a stated priority for the city. Detroit’s city council recently voted to streamline the licensing process. However, zoning reform would also reduce startup costs for local entrepreneurs. To the city’s credit, they recently introduced an adaptive reuse ordinance. Many historic public buildings are in residential-only zones, so new businesses require a time-consuming rezoning process, which can add six months to their construction timeline. While community input is critical for polluting industries, requiring a six-month approval process can shut out small businesses that can add vibrancy, reduce blight, and bring jobs to their neighborhood. The adaptive reuse ordinance permits a limited number of business types to bypass the rezoning process. We argue that City Council should pass this ordinance, and that we should demand similar incremental change through Zone Detroit.

Zoning reform would also strengthen the city’s bottom line. Detroit still contends with too much vacant land. Zoning reform can put tax-paying residents and businesses on this land. For example, if just 1% of the city’s parcels were allowed to add an additional unit, it could raise roughly $20 million in additional revenue for the city every year in property taxes, without raising taxes on any current residents or spending money on costly infrastructure service expansion. Studies have shown that infrastructure costs are lower per household in denser areas. Mayoral candidates frequently discuss reducing the property tax burden on residents while continuing to raise revenue, and zoning reform could help with this goal.

Additionally, studies suggest that when zoning separates adequate housing from jobs, cities and residents lose out on economic opportunities. This needlessly slows job growth potential and quality of life for residents. If Detroit wants to be a leader in economic growth, we need a diverse mix of new and legacy industries, along with affordable housing near those jobs for the people who work at them.

Without zoning reform, Detroit may squander the momentum we’ve built. Insufficient and inequitable tax revenue will likely mean increasingly unaffordable housing, fewer resources for small businesses, and inadequate infrastructure investment, causing neighborhoods to suffer. This is why the next mayor of Detroit cannot afford to ignore zoning reform. 

Strong Towns Detroit, is a nonprofit working to build strong, resilient, and prosperous neighborhoods in Detroit and the greater metro area. Amy Hemmeter is a climate advocate, transit advocate, and data scientist living in Detroit. Naabia Romain is a design enthusiast and urbanism advocate working in sustainability and living on the east side of Detroit. Jon Wylie is a Detroit-based attorney and sustainability professional, as well as a founder of Strong Towns Detroit. Ted Tansley is a data analyst, public relations representative for his block club and a Detroit resident.