Creating Equitable, Healthy, And Sustainable Communities

C R E AT I N G E Q U I TA B L E , H E A LT H Y, A N D S U S TA I N A B L E C O M M U N I T I E S Strategies that promote green buildingcan reduce exposure to toxics and pollutantsthat have been linked to cancer, asthma, andother health problems. These strategies canalso reduce energy and water costs, whichare often a significant burden for low-incomefamilies.Local governments and community-basedorganizations can build green streets bycarrying out relatively simple and low-costprojects, such as installing rain gardens; or byenacting comprehensive policy changes, suchas updating street design standards.pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users canimprove opportunities for businesses andaccess for residents along these importantthoroughfares.Common Element #4: Provide Housing ChoicesOffering an array of housing options bypreserving and building affordable housing allowsresidents at all income levels to live near jobs,services, and public transit; helps to minimizedisplacement; and reduces transportation costsand air pollution from long commutes. Preserving affordable housing using toolslike deed restrictions, housing trust funds,rehabilitation assistance, and Low-IncomeHousing Tax Credits can maintain housingchoices and access to opportunities for lowand moderate-income families in revitalizingareas and catalyze investment in strugglingneighborhoods. Creating new affordable housing throughapproaches such as inclusionary zoning,updated land use regulations, and LowIncome Housing Tax Credits is another wayto expand housing choices for low- andmoderate-income households, includingin affluent communities that lack housingoptions for low-income earners, youngpeople, and seniors.Common Element #3: Strengthen ExistingCommunitiesMany established communities—city downtowns,older suburban neighborhoods, and ruralvillages—are rich in culture, heritage, and socialcapital but lack economic opportunities forresidents. Investing in these existing communitiesrather than in new developments on the outerfringes of metropolitan areas can improvequality of life for low-income and overburdenedpopulations by bringing the new jobs, services,and amenities they need. This approach can alsohelp address the health and safety risks presentedby contaminated properties, abandonedbuildings, and poorly designed streets, and canincrease the tax base to support other local needs. Approaches that encourage fixing existinginfrastructure first prioritize the repairand maintenance of existing roads, bridges,buildings, and water and wastewater facilitiesover the building of new infrastructure inundeveloped places.Reusing vacant and abandoned propertiesas community amenities such as housing,commercial space, gardens, or temporarygreen spaces can remove blight and safetyconcerns, increase residents’ access toneeded services and opportunities, and spuradditional investment in neighborhoods.Redeveloping commercial corridorsby creating compact, mixed-use landuse patterns and making streets safer forCommon Element #5: Provide TransportationOptionsFor many low-income, minority, tribal, andoverburdened communities, public transit andsafe routes for walking and bicycling are criticallinks to regional employment and educationalopportunities that help residents improve their lives.Providing equitable and affordable transportationoptions improves mobility and access to jobs,services, and other daily necessities for all residents,including those who do not own cars. Providing access to public transportationthrough inclusive schedule and routeplanning and thoughtful transit stop andstreet design connects people to regional jobsand services.EXECUTIVE SUMMARYviiiii

C R E AT I N G E Q U I TA B L E , H E A LT H Y, A N D S U S TA I N A B L E C O M M U N I T I E S Implementing equitable transit-orienteddevelopment provides affordable housingnear transit, which can significantly lower thehousing and transportation costs that claima large share of the incomes of many lowincome households.Local and regional agencies and communitybased organizations can work togetherto design safe streets for all users byincorporating sidewalks, bike lanes, medianislands, pedestrian signals, bus lanes, andother facilities for pedestrians, bicyclists,motorists, and public transit users of all agesand abilities into new and existing streets.Common Element #6: Improve Access toOpportunities and Daily NecessitiesAll residents, regardless of race, ethnicity, oreconomic status, should have access to the basicingredients for healthy, productive lives, includingemployment and educational opportunities;services such as health clinics and child care; andamenities such as grocery stores, safe streets, andparks and recreational facilities.viiiiv Approaches to promote diverse,community-centered schools preserve orbuild schools that are near the families theyserve. Community-centered schools allowstudents to walk or bicycle to school, whichpromotes physical activity; and provideimportant community anchors and gatheringplaces. Programs that create safe routes to schoolimprove children’s health by providingeducation, enforcement, and infrastructureupgrades that make it possible for them towalk or bicycle to school. Planners and community-based organizationscan provide access to healthy food byremoving barriers in land use regulations,offering incentives and financing to retailers,connecting retailers with financing, andassisting with challenging issues such asassembling land for development.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Providing access to parks and green spaceat all scales provides critical health, social, andenvironmental benefits for low-income andoverburdened communities.Common Element #7: Preserve and Buildon the Features That Make a CommunityDistinctiveAuthentic community planning and revitalizationare anchored in the physical and cultural assetsthat make a place unique. As decision-makersand community stakeholders implementthe policies and strategies described in thisreport, they should build on the distinctivecharacteristics of their neighborhoods. Preservingand strengthening the features that make a placespecial maintains what existing residents valueabout their homes, attracts new residents andvisitors, and spurs economic development that isgrounded in community identity. Community planning and historicpreservation strategies can help to preserveexisting cultural features. Tools such as design guidelines andneighborhood conservation districts cancreate new development that strengthenslocal culture by capturing the specificphysical characteristics of developmentthat determine the overall character of aneighborhood and applying them to newprojects.This publication demonstrates that smartgrowth, environmental justice, and equitabledevelopment approaches can be an effectivecombination for responding to the challengesoverburdened communities face, promotingdevelopment that is authentic and enduring, andlaying the foundation for economic resilience.Taken together or in part, the strategies outlinedhere can help low-income, minority, tribal, andoverburdened communities shape developmentto respond to their needs and reflect theirvalues. These strategies can also help local andregional planners and policy-makers make landuse decisions that are equitable, healthy, andsustainable for all residents.

C R E AT I N G E Q U I TA B L E , H E A LT H Y, A N D S U S TA I N A B L E C O M M U N I T I E SChapter 1: IntroductionCommunities across the country are integratingsmart growth, environmental justice, andequitable development approaches to designand build healthy, sustainable, and inclusiveneighborhoods. Residents of Spartanburg, SouthCarolina, partnered with the local government,federal agencies, and industry stakeholdersto create new housing, parks, businesses, andhealth clinics where brownfields, landfills,and abandoned buildings once existed. InNew Orleans’ Versailles neighborhood, thecommunity came together after HurricaneKatrina to rebuild its main business corridorand strengthen the neighborhood’s senseof place, which is anchored in Vietnameseculture. On the Ohkay Owingeh reservation inNew Mexico, tribal leaders are implementinga Master Land Use Plan that creates affordablehousing, preserves valuable water resources, andrevives traditional Pueblo settlement patternsand historic plazas. Bethel New Life, a faithbased community development corporation onChicago’s West Side, formed a regional coalitionto preserve transit service in the predominantlyAfrican-American neighborhood and led theconstruction of shops, child care facilities, anemployment center, and energy-efficient andaffordable homes around a train station.Without the appropriate engagementand planning, the implementationof smart growth strategies in lowincome and minority communities candisplace existing residents due to risingrents and other costs of living. Thisunintended consequence has causedsome environmental justice and equityproponents to question smart growth’sinclusivity, and has contributed to a dividebetween smart growth and environmentaljustice. However, some communities haveworked hard to bridge that divide, andhave found that a wide range of toolsand strategies can be used to engagecommunity members in neighborhoodplanning and visioning, provide affordablehomes and transportation choices,support local businesses, and minimizedisplacement in other ways. Many of themare described in this publication.These diverse communities and many othersare finding that environmental justice, smartgrowth, and equitable development can be aneffective combination for promoting a clean andsafe environment, a strong economy, and goodquality of life for all residents. Overburdened1communities are using smart growth strategies toaddress long-standing environmental and1In Plan EJ 2014, EPA’s overarching strategy for advancingenvironmental justice, the Agency uses the term “overburdened”to describe the minority, low-income, tribal, and indigenouspopulations or communities in the United States that potentiallyexperience disproportionate environmental harms and risks asa result of greater vulnerability to environmental hazards. Thisincreased vulnerability may be attributable to an accumulation ofnegative and a lack of positive environmental, health, economic, orsocial conditions within these populations or communities.Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo’s Master Land Use Plan strengthensthe pueblo’s cultural identity and protects its naturalsurroundings by maintaining its traditional commitment toenvironmentally sensitive design. Photo courtesy of the SanJuan Pueblo Office of the Governor.INTRODUCTION1

C R E AT I N G E Q U I TA B L E , H E A LT H Y, A N D S U S TA I N A B L E C O M M U N I T I E S“For too long, environmental justiceand smart growth have been viewed asseparate, yet communities across theU.S. are showing that they are actuallycomplementary. Bringing them together canhelp community-based organizations, localplanners, and other stakeholders achievehealthy and sustainable communities for allAmericans, regardless of race, ethnicity, oreconomic status.”—Lisa GarciaAssociate Assistant Administratorfor Environmental Justice, U.S. EPAmakers and community leaders to consider. Eachcommunity can choose the approaches that bestsuit its needs and goals.Core ConceptsEnvironmental justice, smart growth, andequitable development goals and principleshave fundamental areas of overlap. They allaim to create communities that are healthy,environmentally sustainable, and economicallyvibrant. They also seek to empower residents toshape development where they live. This sectionintroduces the three concepts. The strategies andapproaches described later in the publicationdraw on these three fields.Environmental justicehealth challenges and create new opportunitieswhere they live. Regional and local plannersare engaging low-income, minority, and tribalresidents in decision-making and producingmore enduring development that is better forpeople and the environment. Community groups,government agencies, and private and nonprofitpartners are cleaning up and investing in existingneighborhoods, providing affordable housing andtransportation options, and improving access tocritical services and amenities.This informational publication aims to build onthe successes described above and help otherlow-income, minority, tribal, and overburdenedcommunities shape development that respondsto their needs and reflects their values. Itidentifies approaches that bring together smartgrowth, environmental justice, and equitabledevelopment principles and can be used bycommunity-based organizations, communitydevelopment corporations, local and regionaldecision-makers, developers, and otherstakeholders to build healthy, sustainable, andinclusive communities. These are places thatprovide clean air, water, and land; affordable andhealthy homes; safe, reliable, and economicaltransportation options; and convenient accessto jobs, schools, parks, shopping, and other dailynecessities. This publication provides a menuof strategies and best practices for local policy-2INTRODUCTIONThe environmental justice movement emergedin the 1980s when minority, low-income,and tribal communities began to organize inresponse to disproportionate environmentaland health impacts in their neighborhoodssuch as hazardous facility siting, industrialcontamination, air pollution, and lead poisoning.In 1982, residents of poor, predominantlyAfrican-American Warren County, North Carolina,protested the siting of a landfill, focusing nationalattention on this issue and sparking action inother communities. Subsequently, empiricalstudies have shown that environmental burdensare disproportionately located in minority, lowincome, and tribal communities.2Environmental justice leaders strengthened themovement by securing the establishment ofEPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and thesigning of Executive Order 12898, “Federal Actionsto Address Environmental Justice in MinorityPopulations and Low-Income Populations,” inthe early 1990s. The Executive Order instructedfederal agencies to address disproportionatelyhigh and adverse health or environmental effectsof their programs on low-income, minority, and2Numerous studies on disproportionate environmental impactshave been conducted since the 1980s. For a compilation ofscientific information on environmental justice and environmentalhealth disparities, see “Environmental Justice and Disparities inEnvironmental Health” in the American Journal of Public Health,December 2011, Volume 101, S1.

C R E AT I N G E Q U I TA B L E , H E A LT H Y, A N D S U S TA I N A B L E C O M M U N I T I E Stribal communities. It also created the FederalInteragency Working Group on EnvironmentalJustice to guide, support, and enhance federalenvironmental justice and community-basedactivities.3EPA defines environmental justice

CREATING EQUITABLE, HEALTHY, AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES. Executive Summary. Communities across the country are integrating smart growth, environmental justice, and . equitable development approaches to design and build healthy, sustainable, and inclusive neighborhoods. Overburdened communities are using smart growth strategies to address