The Effect of Inclusionary Zoning on Racial Integration, Economic Integration, and Access to Social Services: A Davis Case Study

The central premise of inclusionary zoning is that by requiring a certain percentage of units to be affordable in all new development, local governments can implement a policy that produces affordable units and improves the equitable distribution of social networks, social capital and social services. To analyze whether inclusionary zoning has resulted in increased racial and economic integration and facilitated access to social services, this paper examines Davis, California as a case study because it seems likely that the longstanding policy has influenced integration. The author uses the index of dissimilarity to compare tract-level Census data from 1980 through 2000 in order to analyze economic and racial integration in the decades before and after the policy was implemented. The author also mapped government records data using GIS in order to spatially represent the location of social services and affordable housing developments created by the inclusionary policy. Using these maps, the author compared trends in residential patterns of race, income, and social services through a tract level analysis of area profiles, point data, and buffers. The results reveal that there is a relationship between Davis’ innovative inclusionary zoning program and increased racial integration and access to social services, but there was little evidence of integration for income groups. While inclusionary zoning policy targets income groups specifically, with racial integration as a co-benefit, the sizable student population in Davis may have influenced the results. Overall, Davis’ inclusionary policy seems to be successful, but can potentially do even more for disadvantaged groups.