[brians]

This is a great focusing question.

There was a study a Few years about about which cities and suburbs could be built under their current zoning laws. I remember it showing that Somerville—a dense collection of 3-decker houses near Boston—was completely impossible to build under its current laws. I don’t have the link handy, but happy googling.

[oftenwrong]

http://cityobservatory.org/the-illegal-city-of-somerville/