Book Review: A Better Way to Zone: Ten Principles to Create More Livable Cities

Elliott’s comprehensive account of zoning practice diligently chronicles the evolution of code theory, development and implementation throughout zoning’s brief but complex history. Like other authors, Elliot often describes the increasingly complex nature of regulations as the legal detritus from several decades of amendments that have clogged the process. In this way he shows that, more often than not, zoning tends to be evolutionary, not revolutionary (4). To sort through this growing mass of legalese, he provides an in-depth description of every main zoning category—Euclidean, form-based codes, PUD developments, performance codes and hybrid codes—as well as the legal background of each model. In fact, Elliott’s legal background enables him to conduct detailed analysis of each zoning method’s statutory repute. Equally impressive, he distills the byzantine patchwork of these laws into straightforward, cogent summaries. The interesting and high-quality writing that marks the pages masks what would otherwise be a very dry read