Zoning: a tool to transform our communities
During our time in Germany so far, we have had the opportunity to hear from Thorsten Donn, the head of Stuttgart’s urban planning department, as well as Barbara Landwehr from Tübingen University. Both speakers discussed sustainability in urban planning, and how a city’s unique features and priorities shape development. A common theme discussed that stood out to me was the emphasis on mixed-use development. While in Los Angeles, mixed-use development is rare to come by, most buildings we saw in Stuttgart and Tübingen have ground-level floors designated for commercial space, and subsequent floors are for housing. This model ensures that communities have built-in space for critical amenities and services, such as grocery stores and medical offices. In addition, it provides a basic level of privacy for residents, since there are no apartments on the ground level. The importance of mixed-use development is apparent when you think of Los Angeles, where we see communities that suffer from food apartheid and lack of access to healthcare. In these German cities, the community is not removed from resources, rather they are integrated into residential spaces, which allows neighborhoods to thrive. Both speakers also illuminated how they have socially mixed housing. In an effort to achieve greater social cohesion between people from all walks of life, housing development mixes residents of differing incomes, bodies, migratory histories, and other social circumstances. In this way, they hope to foster more connection and less isolation between people who may not interact with each other otherwise. I found the emphasis on the framework of socially mixed and mixed-use urban planning to be quite admirable. Even the way they talked about planning as adapting to changes and new needs, rather than continuing with a broken system resonated deeply with me. I fear that we lack this lens in the US, which is profoundly damaging to our communities. People with the means to do so are able to socially isolate themselves from urban problems, like poverty and houselessness. Especially in a horizontal city like Los Angeles, people can avoid what is happening around them because of a lack of proximity. On our little campus in Eagle Rock, we can ignore and neglect to help our unhoused neighbors that sleep under the freeway in tents. Conversely, the decision in Germany to move away from single-use zoning aims to facilitate healthier and more engaged communities. States in the US have a lot to learn from this approach, and it has the potential to completely transform cities across the country. Single-use zoning is damaging to the majority of people and creates dysfunctional cities, thus we should take more integrated approaches, like Germany’s embrace of mixed-use development.
