Sara C. Bronin

Victory for NYC congestion pricing! District court's 149-page opinion finds tolls can remain in place, & wildly popular program can endure: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

My recent @yalelawjournal.bsky.social Forum article details the lawsuit backstory: yalelawjournal.org/collections/...

Surprise leaders still seeking answers about DHS plan for ICE facility Documents obtained by Arizona’s Family Investigates this week outline the Department of Homeland Security’s plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars converting and operating a warehouse into a 1,...

Surprise, AZ, is fighting a DHS move to site an ICE detention facility there. @zoningatlas.bsky.social shows the lot in the Light Industrial district - detention centers not allowed! But even if zoning can be overridden by feds, NEPA/NHPA might help stall it. More: www.azfamily.com/2026/02/18/s...

Life isn’t “one size fits all,” so our lots shouldn’t be, either.

No one will be forced to shrink their lot, but it will pave the way for incremental change. Let’s allow our friends, families, and neighbors the flexibility, freedom, and choice to right-size their lots, their homes, and their lives.

Sensible Lot Sizes — Pro-Homes CT

The lot sizes would be reduced in areas with sewer/water infrastructure; sensitive areas are excluded. A similar proposal was advanced in 2021 through an Issue Brief from @prohomesct.bsky.social & available at www.prohomesct.org/lots.

The CT Legislature is considering a bill that would lower minimum lot sizes to 5,000 SF. I submitted supportive testimony relying on @zoningatlas.bsky.social data that "helps paint a picture of the need for a new approach to minimum lot sizes for single-family land":
www.cga.ct.gov/2026/hsgdata...

Abstract for Transportation for the Abundant Society: A growing chorus known as the abundance movement seeks to overcome artificial scarcity in the built environment—especially housing. Yet this movement’s signature goal of increasing housing production collides with a central driver of scarcity: development restrictions rooted in traffic concerns. Advocates often assume that building more housing will generate support for needed transportation reform. Experience suggests otherwise. In auto-dependent regions, adding housing without reconfiguring transportation tends to reinforce the logic of restriction. Unlocking abundance’s promised feedback loops requires re-grounding transportation policy in its relationship to land use. This Article makes two contributions. First, it introduces into legal analysis a core urban-planning framework: transportation accessibility, which evaluates system performance by users’ ability to reach destinations. Though facially modest, anchoring policy in accessibility would depart sharply from a century of practice, with significant implications across state and local government law. Second, drawing on 13 original interviews with current and former transportation officials, the Article develops a novel account of institutional barriers to reform. Far from the marble corridors and mahogany courtrooms where law is articulated, transportation policy is functionally made in the unglamorous offices of state and local government. We call this institutional crucible—shaped by agency culture and industry convention as well as hard law—“transportation policy linoleum.” It helps explain why proven, seemingly unobjectionable reforms routinely wither. The Article closes with a policy playbook designed to help accessibility break through the linoleum and deliver abundance.

Table of Contents CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 I. ABUNDANCE AND TRANSPORTATION POLICY 6 A. The Rise of Abundance 7 B. Transportation as a Binding Constraint 10 II. THE PURPOSE OF TRANSPORTATION POLICY 17 A. What Counts as Success? 18 B. From Mobility to Access 20 C. Transportation Policy Spillovers 24 1. Housing affordability 24 2. Climate mitigation 28 3. Roadway safety 29 III. OPERATIONAL BARRIERS TO REFORM 32 A. Network Effects and System Interdependence 33 B. Operational Complexity and Risk 34 IV. LEGAL BARRIERS TO REFORM 36 A. NEPA and the Dawn of Conservation Primacy 36 B. Judges as Planners: California’s CEQA Regime 40 C. Judges as Planners Around the Country 44 1. Minnesota and comprehensive planning 44 2. Washington, D.C. and density review 46 3. Montana and constitutional penumbra 46 V. TRANSPORTATION POLICY LINOLEUM 48 A. Policy “In Books” and “In Action”: 13 Interviews 48 B. Fragmentation and Coordination Failures 49 C. Path Dependence and Institutional Lock-In 53 D. Legal Risk and Defensive Administration 55 VI. A POLICY PLAYBOOK FOR ACCESS 57 A. Behavioral Data as Participation 57 1. Ex ante participation 58 2. Ex post participation 59 B. Realistic Alternatives Modeling 59 C. A More Honest Cost-Benefit Analysis 60 1. Requiring cost-benefit discipline 61 2. Accounting for opportunity costs and externalities 63 CONCLUSION 64

ToC continued, plus first bit of text from article: A central claim of the emerging “abundance agenda” is that in the physical world, more is more: more housing, more clean energy, and more infrastructure to support both. Abundance brings the American promise of plenty into policy, arguing that government should expand capacity—so that individuals can access the good life and society can advance climate goals, scientific discovery, and prosperity. In both its academic and popular expressions, the ideologically diverse movement contends that law has created artificial scarcity and that the remedy is to loosen outdated constraints and rebuild state capacity so government can build and approve major projects—housing, transportation, energy, health—more quickly and reliably. Abundance draws on a substantial literature diagnosing law-made supply constraints in American public policy. Its core question is pragmatic: how to clear regulatory blockages to enable more building. Scholars have long identified such blockages at the intersection of land use and transportation, from highways to high-speed rail. Yet even improved megaprojects would not meet most Americans’ daily transportation needs. And the connection between transportation policy and abundance remains underdeveloped, even as political interest grows.

✨ introducing… ✨

🌇 Transportation for the Abundant Society 🚅

"Abundance" says our problem is artificial scarcity—especially housing. But you can’t build your way out if transportation policy still treats traffic flow as sacred.

Transportation is the binding constraint. ssrn.com/abstract=538...

Groups Back Larson Challenger, Calling for Generational Change

Story about the need for generational change in the First Congressional district: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/u...

Proud of @lukebronin.bsky.social (no relation... anymore!) for challenging the status quo & stepping up to represent his community.

Also read 2 law-prof-superstars essays:
* Jennifer Chacon at @law.stanford.edu (immigration)
* @rickhills.bsky.social at @nyulaw.bsky.social (civil rights grants)

Thanks to @gwlaw.bsky.social student Clare Westra for assistance & excellent YLJ editors, esp EIC Jeremy Thomas & Melissa Gutwein! 🙏

🚦🚕 New Essay in @yalelawjournal.bsky.social Forum: "Transportation Law's Congestion Problem," covering the NYC congestion pricing battle & encouraging law to facilitate local projects that reduce driving. 🚘🚊

Full "Cities & States at a Crossroads" Collection here: yalelawjournal.org/collection/c...

DESIGN: The Places We Live GREAT PODCAST! There is political urgency in the Housing Crisis: There is academic fascination with Urban Design: There is popular cultural obsession with Community Building. But the basic directio…

The latest Design Now Podcast hosted by Duo Dickinson features Andres Duany, Yodan Rofe, and me on the intersection of design & community:
savedbydesign.wordpress.com/2025/12/12/d...

I really enjoyed this conversation with two preservation friends about the importance of zoning to preservationists! Check out the full video in the link below:

This goes on the full-audit list!

And I'm admitted to the Supreme Court and didn't know that either...!?! Sigh.

Bluebook citation with italicized comma.

How could I have missed that the comma after "see" in "See, e.g." is supposed to be italicized!? (In this official Bluebook example, blue = italicize.)

Hoping this was a recent change & I don't have to renounce every legal text I've ever written! They're filled with plain commas in this position...

I agree. I have an article coming out in the Yale Law Journal Forum next month about congestion pricing & its sordid legal history (going back 100 years!)... will send link.

OK! We always say in order to understand WHEN a local zoning override is necessary, you need to understand the underlying zoning first. If an override happens, you can quantify its effects with a before-and-after analysis. At some point, we'll work with a state to model this. Maybe CA! 🤔

California Zoning Atlas — National Zoning Atlas The California Zoning Atlas is a project of the National Zoning Atlas, which aims to digitize, demystify, and democratize information about zoning conditions in more than 30,000 U.S. jurisdictions. In...

What does "statewide zoning base layer mean"...? With help from partners, NZA just finished a first pass through CA (which we are running corrections on, then updating for 2025/2026 codes...). Explore at www.zoningatlas.org/atlas, & a couple of webinars are up at www.zoningatlas.org/california.

This "High-Impact" honor means a lot to the NZA team working to make zoning data accessible, accurate, & actionable. In 2026, our philanthropic priority is an engagement team to translate our data for advocates, policymakers, & the public.
🫶Consider supporting our work!: www.zoningatlas.org/donate

I’ve attended a couple of these Lincoln Institute Journalists Fora. They've inspired us at the NZA to do a (virtual) media training in the new year to ensure reporters know how to use it. Stay tuned, but in the meantime, media can learn more about the NZA at www.zoningatlas.org/media!

Virginia Zoning Atlas — National Zoning Atlas The Virginia Zoning Atlas is a project of the National Zoning Atlas, which aims to digitize, demystify, and democratize information about zoning conditions in more than 30,000 U.S. jurisdictions. The ...

Now @abigailspanberger.com has a roadmap for fulfilling her campaign promises on housing. Last month, @zoningatlas.bsky.social released a statewide report & public map that documents VA zoning (www.zoningatlas.org/virginia). Read our op-ed in @pilotonline.com!:
www.pilotonline.com/2025/12/17/c...

We use a standard metric to count pages. We also collate supplemental appendices, etc., into single PDFs.

Note many codes aren't online. I just got a 177-page paper copy in the mail after an FOI from a NC jurisdiction.

Bottom line: AI can't compete with our @zoningatlas.bsky.social team. 🥊💪🥇

Of the thousands of jurisdictions in our map, the average zoning code length is 179.

2. Key to the City - How Zoning Shapes our World by @sarabronin.bsky.social. bsky.app/profile/moda...

Good urbanist books list!

Nolan's right: the right statewide reforms can work - & in some cases have been transformative.

@zoningatlas.bsky.social has revealed that state laws don't always hit the mark (e.g., overlooked barriers, lack of local compliance). But we shouldn't undercut the potential of statewide reforms.

zoning map of east lyme ct

Hi Rep!, Thanks for working your way through it! Maybe it's good reading for the East Lyme planning & zoning commissions... what with the 83% of land subject to 1-acre min lot sizes and all (per zoningatlas.org/atlas)? GOOD LUCK as you advance better zoning in CT!

"Bronin challenges readers to think big when it comes to zoning reform. And it illuminates the beauty... possible in urban spaces... Key to the City stands as a powerful call for (thoughtful) action."

Kind review by @ezrarosser.bsky.social @jotwell.bsky.social!: property.jotwell.com/unlocking-dy...

And then there were FOUR 🎉🎉 Congratulations to Connecticut, which earlier this week became the 4th state to pass statewide Parking Reform in 2025: bsky.app/profile/ctpa...

DIY Democracy: Zoning: Key to the City and to Our Communities I spoke with Professor Sara Bronin to learn about zoning: what is it, what is its purpose, and how does it work.  Link to her book on bookshop:  Link to her website tool to learn about zonin...

I spoke to @sarabronin.bsky.social about her book on zoning and how it affects us all. Have a listen!

We expect Philly is going to be right up there with the best 🥇🥊 - but we wouldn't know (yet!), because we're still seeking support to complete the Philly Metro Zoning Atlas. Stay tuned and we'll update when we start there. (And - if anyone has funding tips, DM me!)