ZRI Explorer

Zoning Restrictiveness Index (standardized; 0 = national average) from the National Zoning and Land Use Database · Mleczko & Desmond (2023). Higher scores = more restrictive zoning.

Average score by state

Click a state to filter the table and histogram.

Less restrictive

More restrictive

Score distribution

All municipalities, in 0.25-point bins.

Municipality rankings

Ranked most → least restrictive. Click a row for detail.

Rank	Municipality	Type	ZRI score

Metro-area coverage rates · read this before comparing metros

The NZLUD replicates the 2006 Wharton survey sample, so many metros include only a fraction of their municipalities. Low-coverage metros are shown for completeness , interpret their aggregates with care.

Metro area	In data	Municipalities	Coverage

Data: Mleczko, M. & Desmond, M. (2023), “Using natural language processing to construct a National Zoning and Land Use Database,” Urban Studies , github.com/mtmleczko/nzlud (MIT license). Scores are the standardized ZRI for the expanded sample (ZRI_expand_muni_up). Part of NZLUD Studio.