Housing Literature Survey

See also: Upzoning Literature Analysis , Economic Literature Review, Housing Literature Survey

Empirical Understanding of Commercial Upzoning

Most empirical work on upzoning focuses on housing production, prices, and demographics; there is very little that directly measures effects on existing small businesses, parking loss, or replacement by residential lobbies/offices. [1][2] California has not eliminated all requirements for ground‑floor retail—state laws like AB 2011 and SB 6 largely add housing rights in commercial zones, and in some cases explicitly preserve or even require some ground‑floor commercial space. [3][4][5]

Empirical studies on upzoning and development

These are core empirical sources you can cite; most touch business impacts only indirectly (via land values, redevelopment pressure, or corridor change).

• Freemark (2023), “Zoning Change: Upzonings, Downzonings, and Their Impacts on Urban Neighborhoods”

  • Synthesizes quantitative studies from New York, Chicago, Seattle, Paris, Houston and others; finds that upzoning increases development capacity and often construction, but effects on affordability and neighborhood change vary by market and scale. [1][6]

  • Suggests that broad upzoning tends to raise land values and can encourage redevelopment on commercial streets, which indirectly raises displacement risk for existing businesses, though this is not the main variable studied. [1]

• Been et al. (2014) and related NYC upzoning work (summarized in zoning/inequality review)

  • Use lot‑level panel data for New York City 2002–2009, showing that upzoned areas see more new residential construction and increased land prices, while downzoned areas see less construction. [2]

  • The mechanism implies pressure on existing uses (including commercial tenants) on upzoned sites, but the studies do not separately quantify business closures.

• “Making housing affordable? The local effects of relaxing land-use constraints” (2024, ScienceDirect)

  • Uses a quasi‑experimental design comparing upzoned vs control grid cells; finds living space and housing units increase by about 9% in upzoned areas. [7]

  • Again, business displacement is not the outcome, but the work is useful for framing built‑form effects of upzoning.

• Seattle, Houston, Paris, etc. case studies (cited within Freemark 2023)

  • Seattle: simulations and parcel‑scale studies show that upzoning near transit increases redevelopment probabilities and shifts land use toward multifamily, with implications for existing low‑intensity commercial uses. [8][1]

  • Houston minimum‑lot‑size reform: many underbuilt residential parcels redeveloped, showing how deregulation can spur infill; impacts on small business are again implied rather than measured. [1]

• Planning for transit corridors and small business displacement (Purple Line, SBAN case)

  • Research on the Purple Line corridor in Maryland documents that transit‑oriented upzoning and redevelopment plans create measurable risk of small business displacement along commercial corridors (construction disruption, rent increases, changes in customer base). [9]

  • This is not California‑specific, but directly addresses the mechanisms you care about (construction impacts and rent‑gap driven redevelopment of commercial strips). [9][10]

• Broad land‑use deregulation and inclusionary zoning

  • Work synthesizing national evidence on zoning and affordable housing notes that broad deregulatory moves (including upzoning and parking minimum reductions) tend to increase production but can interact with inclusionary/fee regimes in ways that influence feasibility and where redevelopment occurs. [11][12]

In short, there is a gap: empirical studies rarely track existing businesses as the unit of analysis. For your work, you will likely need to combine parcel‑scale upzoning evidence with separate literatures on small‑business displacement, TOD, and commercial‑corridor redevelopment. [9][10][2]

California’s commercial upzoning and ground‑floor retail

Regarding whether California has “eliminated zoning that requires ground floor retail”:

• AB 2011 (Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act)

  • Allows by‑right mixed‑income and 100% affordable housing in many commercial zones, subject to location, affordability, and labor standards. [13][3]

  • Guidance from ABAG and local implementation memos indicate that local standards can still require ground‑floor commercial on portions of the site; AB 2011 does not universally wipe out such requirements. [3][4]

  • In fact, summary documents note that local objective standards may include a requirement that “up to one‑half of the ground floor square footage… be dedicated to retail use,” and that some density‑bonus concessions cannot be used to remove that requirement. [3][4]

• SB 6 (Middle Class Housing Act)

  • Makes housing an allowable use on parcels zoned for office/retail, but requires projects to meet objective standards of the nearest multifamily zone or equivalent, and does not create a separate ministerial approval track. [13][5]

  • Commentaries emphasize that existing local zoning and design standards—including ground‑floor use requirements—often still apply unless explicitly preempted. [5]

• Local implementation examples (e.g., Los Angeles AB 2011/SB 6 memo)

  • Los Angeles’ planning memo on AB 2011/SB 6 explains that AB 2011 projects can still be subject to frontage and setback rules and that local standards may require a portion of the ground floor to remain retail; it even notes that a density bonus concession cannot be used to reduce a compliant ground‑floor retail requirement up to one‑half of the ground‑floor area. [4][3]

Given this:

• It is not accurate to say that California has broadly “eliminated” zoning that requires ground‑floor retail. [3][4][5]

• State laws add strong overlay rights for housing in commercial zones, but they typically leave room for:

  • Objective design and use standards (including some retail requirements).

  • Negotiated or locally chosen corridors and implementation rules. [3][4][13]

Politically, many advocates are pushing to reduce blanket ground‑floor retail mandates where demand is weak, but that is happening via local zoning updates and specific corridor plans, not a single statewide prohibition.

Studies and sources closest to business‑impact questions

While explicit econometric estimates of “business closures due to upzoning” are rare, these sources are most relevant for your concern about existing businesses, parking, and lobbies replacing retail:

• Small Business Anti‑Displacement Network / Purple Line Corridor Coalition report (2023–2024)

  • Documents how major transit and corridor reinvestment spur both infill and heightened risk of small business displacement, and describes tools (technical assistance, funding, place‑based management) to mitigate construction disruption and rent increases. [9]

• Inclusive Action & SBAN case study (CORE in LA)

  • Provides qualitative evidence on landlord “rent gap” strategies—buying older commercial buildings and repositioning them for higher‑rent tenants or mixed‑use—leading to displacement of long‑standing community‑serving businesses. [10]

• Local commentary on upzoning and small business (e.g., SF coverage)

  • Some Bay Area commentary pieces argue that objective design standards, density bonuses, and upzoning in commercial districts can create ideal conditions for speculative teardown and displacement of small businesses, especially where no anti‑displacement measures are in place. [14]

These are not large‑N causal studies, but they provide rich mechanism‑level documentation you can pair with quantitative upzoning literature.

How to frame the research gap

For an academic piece focused on California commercial upzoning:

• Use Freemark 2023, the NYC/Bloomberg upzoning work, and newer international quasi‑experimental papers as your backbone on how upzoning affects housing supply, land values, and built form. [1][2][7]

• Bring in AB 2011 / SB 6 implementation documents to show that California’s approach specifically targets commercial zones and corridors, with partial retention of ground‑floor retail expectations. [3][4][13][5]

• Then argue that impacts on existing businesses, customer parking access, and replacement by residential lobbies/offices are largely unmeasured in the quantitative literature, and motivate a new empirical design (parcel‑level panel + business registry / sales tax / business license data) to fill that gap. [9][10][2]

If you want, the next step can be drafting a 1–2 paragraph “literature gap” section that you can drop straight into a paper, explicitly positioning your proposed study of California commercial‑corridor upzoning and small‑business impacts.

Sources
[1] [PDF] Zoning Change: Upzonings, Downzonings, and Their Impacts on ... https://yonahfreemark.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Freemark-2023-Zoning-Change.pdf
[2] Zoning, Land Use, and the Reproduction of Urban Inequality - PMC https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10691857/
[3] [PDF] AB 2011 and SB 6 Summary of Key Details https://abag.ca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023-07/AB-2011-SB-6-Summary-Key-Details-7.28.2023.pdf
[4] [PDF] Los Angeles City Planning - City of Los Angeles https://planning.lacity.gov/odocument/efb2ba8c-6594-46e5-b48c-db468cdafd44/AB_2011_SB_6_Implementation_Memo.pdf
[5] California Legislature Allows Housing on Commercial Property https://www.rutan.com/california-legislature-allows-housing-development-on-commercial-property/
[6] Zoning Change: Upzonings, Downzonings, and Their Impacts on ... https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08854122231166961
[7] Making housing affordable? The local effects of relaxing land-use ... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119024000597
[8] [PDF] HOW DOES UPZONING IMPACT LAND USE AND TRANSPORT http://caee.webhost.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman/public_html/TRB23UpzoningSeattleNaifu.pdf
[9] [PDF] Preventing Small Business Displacement in Six Neighborhoods ... https://purplelinecorridor.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2023-SBAN_chapter-4_final-2.pdf
[10] A Case Study on Preventing Business Displacement - Inclusive Action https://inclusiveaction.org/blog/a-case-study-on-preventing-business-displacement/
[11] The Exclusionary Effects of Inclusionary Zoning: Economic Theory ... https://manhattan.institute/article/the-exclusionary-effects-of-inclusionary-zoning-economic-theory-and-empirical-research
[12] [PDF] Tensions and Trade-offs in Planning and Policymaking for Transit ... https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/57050/dot_57050_DS1.pdf
[13] [PDF] Developing Housing in Commercial Zones: AB 2011 & SB 6 https://www.apacalifornia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/11-01-2022-AB-2011-and-SB-6-Webinar-FINAL-1.pdf
[14] New upzoning and 'objective design' rules could lead to small ... https://48hills.org/2024/06/new-upzoning-and-objective-design-rules-could-lead-to-small-business-displacement/
[15] Infill Development: Balancing Growth, Transit, and Sustainability https://www.njtod.org/infill-development/