Designed to bring light and air down the street even as skyscrapers soared higher, the earliest zoning codes called for setbacks, and left it largely at that.

WSJ: Zoning Laws Grow Up | By Julie V. Iovine

Many zoning codes require large setbacks the minimum distance that a home can be from the road that leave too little room to build a large home with a courtyard.

WSJ: Full Enclosure - WSJ Mansion

In addition to restricting building heights and mixed-use development, these zoning codes almost invariably force developers to provide parking for new construction projects, whether the market demands it or not.

FORBES: The Urban-Planning Culture War

Changes in zoning and building codes continue to transfer many infrastructure and social costs from the public to developers.

FORBES: How Is Federal Housing Policy Populist When Prices Are Rising?

The vast physical infrastructure along the East Coast is protected both by engineered systems, including floodgates, seawalls and levees, and by legal and economic systems, including zoning, building codes and flood insurance.

FORBES: Rising Seas Along the East Coast

The vision, experience and conviction that turns blueprints into great cities while retaining the integrity of an idea and guiding essential changes through the intricacies of codes, zoning, market economics, popular expectations and procedural complexities is something for which politicians, businessmen and special interests are notoriously ill suited.

WSJ: New York Stadium Deals: Good and Bad

In the hubs of technology and commerce, like San Francisco and New York, growth is hampered by expensive rents, living expenses, and start-up costs, often stemming from restrictive building codes and outdated zoning laws.

FORBES: Why America Needs To Be An Innovation Nation