Health has a lot to do with where we live—and how the land where we live is used. Land use shapes communities' access to health-promoting resources: public transit, pedestrian safety, jobs, housing, healthy food, parks and green spaces, and much more. Yet, too often, land use reinforces inequities by race, place, and income.
Our new policy brief— Four Shifts to Heal Communities: Advancing Health Equity and Racial Justice in Land-Use Planning and the Built Environment—describes four changes to advance equity and racial justice in the planning sector:
- Shift 1: Embed health equity and racial justice in every land-use decision
- Shift 2: Land-use decisions should be driven by the principle of Community Land for Community Benefit
- Shift 3: Look to community leadership for solutions
- Shift 4: Uproot pay-to-play politics from land-use decision-making
Without these shifts, our planning system will continue to create and maintain inequities in our cities through the unfair distribution of environmental burdens (such as pollution and pedestrian hazards) and benefits (such as parks and healthy food), while undermining social fabrics and wealth creation in Black and Brown communities.
With these shifts, the practices that have produced these injustices —from undue political influence over planning decisions to processes that undermine participation and accountability—can be reversed to result in equitable processes and outcomes, racial justice, and community health.
While this brief draws on lessons from the Los Angeles region—particularly the work of the Healthy Equitable Active Land Use Network—the overall principles are broadly applicable. |
