Urban Land Use Reform

The report argues that discriminatory, car-centric land use policies in the United States have created housing shortages and increased transportation emissions. By implementing reforms such as upzoning, urban infill, and transit-oriented development in Austin, Charlotte, and Denver, RMI finds that vehicle miles traveled can be reduced by up to 13%, building energy use by up to 16%, and local greenhouse gas emissions by up to 14% compared to business-as-usual development.

• Land use reforms in the analyzed metropolitan regions can lead to significant reductions compared to business-as-usual development: vehicle miles traveled can decrease by up to 13%, building energy use by up to 16%, and local greenhouse gas emissions by up to 14%.
• To achieve global climate goals, the United States must reduce transportation emissions by 45 percent by 2030, which necessitates deploying 70 million electric vehicles and reducing per capita vehicle miles traveled by 20 percent within seven years.
• The report identifies specific land use reform measures to achieve these goals, including upzoning to remove multifamily housing restrictions, urban infill on underutilized parcels, and transit-oriented development featuring taller buildings near high-quality transit.

APA

RMI (2023). Urban Land Use Reform. https://rmi.org/resources/urban-land-use-reform/

Chicago

RMI. Urban Land Use Reform. 2023. https://rmi.org/resources/urban-land-use-reform/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Urban Land Use Reform |date=12 April 2023 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/urban-land-use-reform/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2023urban, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Urban Land Use Reform}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2023}, month = apr, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/urban-land-use-reform/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }