Zoning 2.0 Update: A Breakthrough for Atlanta’s Housing Future
September 24, 2026
After years(!) of public input and recent pro-housing advocacy, we're seeing signs of meaningful progress toward a zoning code that allows the housing options our city needs. The City of Atlanta commissioned an independent review of Zoning 2.0 that reinforces many of the changes we've been advocating for to improve Atlanta's outdated zoning code. Here's what we're keeping an eye on now.
What is Zoning 2.0 and why does it matter?
Earlier this year, we wrote that Zoning 2.0 is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reverse Atlanta's housing affordability crisis. We also said the draft of our city's first comprehensive zoning reform in 40 years did not go far enough to address our housing shortage or expand housing choices. Atlanta remains one of the most unequal cities in the United States, with housing costs rising faster than incomes and nearly half of renters burdened by housing costs.
The current draft misses several important opportunities to advance housing affordability, walkability, and other best practices. It also clocks in at roughly 900 pages, with layer upon layer of new rules and requirements. Any one of these provisions might seem minor. Together, they can make housing more expensive, complicated, and difficult to build. We call this “zoning by 1000 cuts.” Every extra barrier has a cost, and ultimately, those costs harm affordability for homeowners and renters.
What we’ve been working on: Solutions
To articulate what “better” policy looks like, Abundant Housing Atlanta has been an organizing force behind a broad citywide coalition that developed a detailed list of evidence-based reforms to improve Zoning 2.0.
The vision is simple: We believe in creating an Atlanta where anyone who desires to live here can build a life that they can afford.
Our recommendations combine what has worked in other cities with local expertise about the barriers that make housing harder and more expensive to build in Atlanta. They include policies advised by the National Housing Crisis Task Force and already being adopted in cities around the country.
The coalition submitted a letter to city officials in August that lays out...
- What Atlanta needs - recommended zoning reforms to produce affordable, attainable housing and enable equitable growth.
- What the current draft gets wrong - problems Zoning 2.0 fails to address or worsens.
- The impact - a case study shows how the new requirements in the fall 2025 draft would negatively impact affordability and feasibility of new construction.
You can read the coalition's letter here.
Where are we now?
After months of pro-housing advocacy and public input, the city commissioned Sara Bronin, founder of the National Zoning Atlas, to provide an independent analysis of the second Zoning 2.0 draft.
