Voices

VOICES: Why zoning reform will cut Detroit’s greenhouse gas emissions

It’s easy to blame the auto industry for our lack of walkability, but outdated zoning policy is a major contributor.

by Naabia Romain and Amy Hemmeter April 8, 2026April 8, 2026

Nighttime view of Detroit looking west as traffic flows on Jefferson Avenue. Photo by Vito Palmisano via iStock.

Overview:

Transportation generates about one-third of Southeast Michigan's greenhouse gas emissions, largely due to zoning policies that prioritize car-dependent development.
Detroit zoning requires 1.75 parking spaces per housing unit and forces buildings to be set back from sidewalks, making neighborhoods unwalkable.
The pending "Let's Build More Housing, Detroit" ordinance would reduce parking minimums and setback requirements to enable more walkable development.

Transportation accounts for about one-third of Southeast Michigan’s greenhouse gas emissions. Part of the reason is that we’ve made any option other than driving inaccessible through our land use choices as a region.

While electric vehicles are certainly helpful, zoning policies that prioritize alternatives could decarbonize transportation faster — while conferring public health and affordability benefits to residents — than EVs alone.

What is land use?

“Land use” is simply how human beings use land, and in the context of a city, that looks like development and zoning regulations. In Detroit, we often hear about land use in the context of what to do with vacant land, but there are dozens of rules that affect land use in all parts of the city. Detroit, like nearly all communities in the United States, has zoning rules that dissuade walkable development.

How does land use affect transportation choice?

Imagine: you’re trying to run an errand on foot in Southeast Michigan. What does that look like?

You’re likely on a sidewalk, on a major arterial road — for example, Woodward.

Perhaps you have to cross all eight lanes of that road, and the drivers will not be paying much attention to pedestrians (why would they, considering they’re such a rare sight on these roads?).

You manage to survive the road crossing, but you still have to cross a large empty parking lot with enough spaces for Black Friday everyday. Once again, drivers are not looking out for pedestrians, especially near the outer sidewalk. Eventually, you head into a big box store, then head back through the same sea of asphalt, with exceedingly small amounts of real estate dedicated to your safe passage.

Walkability and land use

What makes a more walkable area, like downtown Ann Arbor? Pedestrians are on sidewalks directly next to stores and restaurants, allowing them to “window shop” and enter a small business on a whim. It’s made possible by reduced parking minimums, instead of the sea of asphalt from our low walkability scenario.

Many shops and restaurants are located one after another, and there’s usually housing on top of these businesses. Perhaps the businesses are even integrated into a neighborhood, as in Detroit’s West Village neighborhood.

These neighborhoods also have more “missing middle” housing: buildings with 4-12 units, allowing for more local customers. Much of Detroit is zoned for only single-family housing or duplexes.

It’s easy to blame the auto industry for our lack of walkability, but outdated zoning policy is a major contributor. For example, most of Detroit requires 1.75 parking spaces for every new unit of housing, even if the occupants don’t have a car.

Retail developments are usually required to build an additional parking space for every 200 square feet of retail floor space. For context, a parking space is about 180 square feet, so this essentially requires twice as much land in order to meet parking requirements versus real economic activity, regardless of real demand for parking.

These parking requirements also physically spread out amenities so that they’re further away from each other and sidewalks, making it difficult and less pleasant to walk in the neighborhood. Who wants to stroll between traffic and parking lots?

Another source of spread in Detroit is our vacant land. Every empty lot could be a dentist office, hardware store, restaurant, or home that residents could walk to, reducing carbon emissions.

We have arbitrary requirements that buildings must be 20 feet away from sidewalks, 10 feet away on either side from neighboring buildings, and 30 feet from the back of the property.

Since so many of our older homes and buildings were built before these rules were instituted in the 1940s, 85% of vacant lots cannot be rebuilt under new zoning rules without applying for costly and time-consuming exceptions, making rebuilding prohibitively expensive for small Detroit-based developers to fill the tangible gaps within our neighborhoods.

What we can do about it

City council is still deliberating over the “Let’s Build More Housing, Detroit” ordinance, which allows for a modest decrease in parking minimums and setback requirements, and enables more dense development by-right outside of areas specifically zoned for single-family housing.

To build a sustainable and resilient future in Detroit, we need to build a walkable, bikeable, and transit-accessible Detroit. To build that version of Detroit, we need zoning that addresses the needs of residents and local businesses. Passing the “Let’s Build More Housing, Detroit” ordinance is a step in that direction.

Planet Detroit’s Voices column includes opinion pieces from our community of partners and readers. These pieces express the voices of the authors and not necessarily those of the publication.