NIMBY, or “Not In My Back Yard,” made its way into our lexicon in 1980, and is defined by Merriam-Webster as “opposition to the locating of something considered undesirable (such as a prison or incinerator) in one’s neighborhood.” More recently, we have heard BANANA, or “Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.” For those who embrace NIMBY and BANANA, there is another catchy moniker, CAVE, or “Citizens Against Virtually Everything.”

An emerging countermovement is YIMBY, which stands for “Yes In My Back Yard.” It is driven by grassroots citizens groups pressuring their local governments to develop plans and regulations that will make their communities truly diverse and inclusive. What are governments doing in response to this demand, and what are the legal issues in implementation?