Residential Zoning by Race - Current Context
by Carolyn Ristau
Over the 100 years of zoning in Pittsburgh, zoning districts that permitted multi-unit housing types shrank. When the rest of the current zoning districts are stripped away, the location of the 5% zoned for multi-family uses of 4 or more units suggests a strong correlation between race and the location of multi-family zoning.
The Emergence of a Pattern
When looking at just the location of the current multi-unit zoning districts, there are a handful of significant clusters. Two are in the Oakland, Shadyside, and Squirrel Hill neighborhoods — areas with a high percent of university students. Three are in the Hill District, Homewood, Larimer, and Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhoods, where 80% or more of the residents are Black. The cluster south of the rivers is an area of public housing, much of which has been demolished, but what remains also has a high percentage of Black residents. Several of the smaller areas of multi-family zoning that remain are other public housing complexes.
The Factors
This pattern raises the question of what factors determined the locations where multi-family zoning districts consolidated and where single-family zoning districts grew in the city over the last 100 years. It particularly calls into question the four factors commonly discussed in the zoning field as determinants in deciding the location of zoning districts. These factors are:
Existing built environment
Proximity to other uses
Transportation options
Future land use goals
This research proposes two other factors to fill that gap created when applying these factors to Pittsburgh’s zoning map. These two factors may stand on their own or may be connected to the future land use goals factor above.
Home Owner’s Loan Corporation’s Residential Security grading (aka “Redlining”)
Race
To read more, continue to the project page’s dive into the Case Study neighborhoods for a look at how these factors align with the zoning districts in two of Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods.
