Austin Zwick, associate teaching professor and program director for the Policy Studies program at the College of Professional Studies, has published new research on how cities can fix their planning systems to address housing crises.
The article appears in Urban Governance. It examines Vancouver’s shift from negotiation-based planning to a clear, rules-based system. Zwick’s research shows how discretionary systems—where each building project needs lengthy negotiations—cause major delays, higher costs, and unfair outcomes.
Through detailed analysis and interviews with planners, developers, and housing advocates, Zwick shows how Vancouver’s reforms have improved transparency, efficiency, and accountability. These reforms include citywide upzoning and standardized approval processes, more effectively and equitably allowing housing supply to catch up with demand.
The research uses the Commercial-Broadway Safeway project as a key example. It shows how negotiation-heavy processes delayed housing construction and drive up costs for years, making housing less available and more expensive. Zwick concludes that “cities confronting housing affordability crises should systematically remove discretionary ordinances from their planning codes.”
This research brings real policy solutions into the classroom. In PST367: Smart Cities and Urban Policy, Policy Studies students learn to analyze and solve complex urban challenges.
Read the full article from Urban Governance here.