In the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Thomas Okuda Fitzpatrick on how zoning decides who gets to live in localities across Virginia.

In a recent guest column, HOME of VA Executive Director Thomas Okuda Fitzpatrick argues that Virginia’s housing shortage isn’t an accident. It follows from local rules about what can be built, and where.

Tom starts by recalling his own search for an affordable apartment in Richmond after college. In a well-functioning market, he notes, steady demand from tens of thousands of new graduates each year would bring a steady supply of affordable rentals. Instead, options are scarce, and zoning is a major reason why.

“The rules cities and counties make about what we may build, and where, can open up housing opportunities,” he writes. “But all too often, they shut them out.”

To show the scale of the problem, Thomas points readers to the new Virginia Zoning Atlas from HousingForward Virginia, an interactive map of where different types of housing are allowed. Across the Richmond region, single-family homes can be built almost everywhere. But as the Atlas shows, duplexes are allowed on just 6% of land, and apartments are prohibited outright on 85% of it.

He also traces how Virginia’s homebuilding has fallen to less than half its 1970 rate per resident. He describes where Richmond, Chesterfield, and Henrico stand today. And he notes how states from Texas to Oregon have passed sweeping reforms, while Virginia remains stuck.

Tom’s conclusion: “The lack of affordable options faced by new grads, young families and low-income workers? Many of those missing homes were zoned out of existence. That was a policy choice. It’s time we made better ones.”

Read the full column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch →