Urban Containment and Residential Segregation: A Preliminary Investigation

A fundamental purpose of traditional land-use controls is to exclude undesirable land uses from residential communities. However, such regulations have been shown to limit the ability of low-income households and people of colour to find suitable housing in decent neighbourhoods. Urban containment is an attempt to regulate land uses in ways that reduce if not eliminate social exclusion. This paper uses information from a nation-wide survey of metropolitan planning organisations to identify metropolitan areas with urban containment programmes in place. A theory is developed and a model is applied to 242 metropolitan statistical areas to test the hypothesis that areas with urban containment witnessed greater reductions in residential segregation than those without. Preliminary statistical investigations show this to be the case. Policy implications and an outline for further research are provided.

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