The Commissioner — Summer 2007
Resource Finder
Environmental Justice
Learn more about this important concept.
APA Publications
Intersection Between Environmental Justice and Land Use Planning
Patricia E. Salkin
Planning & Environmental Law, May 2006
Environmental justice goes to the core of traditional land-use decisions: choosing sites for locally unwanted land uses (geographic equity); the process for deciding where to site these unwanted land uses, including the location and timing of public hearings (procedural equity); and sociological factors, including which groups hold the political power inherent in land-use decisions (social equity).
Planning for Environmental Justice
Tony Arnold
Planning & Environmental Law, March 2007
Environmental justice and good land-use planning are inseparably connected. Land-use planning ideally should result from a fair and participatory process. A rich planning literature calls for robust public participation (even self-determination) in planning, the incorporation of social equity into plans, and vigilance in assessing the likely socio-economic, racial, and ethnic impacts of land-use policies.
Web Resources
APA's Policy Guide on Solid and Hazardous Waste Management
April 15, 2002
www.planning.org/policy/guides/
There will always be waste; the issue is how we manage it. The American Planning
Association and its chapters support managing solid wastes (including hazardous and medical wastes) in accordance with the hierarchy: reduce, reuse, recycle, waste to energy, incinerate, and landfill.
EPA Office of Environmental Justice Website
The Environmental Protection Agency website offers many resources:
http://epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/
Environmental Justice for All: A Fifty-State Survey of Legislation, Policies, andInitiatives
Steven Bonorris, Editor
American Bar Association and Hastings College of Law, January 2004
www.abanet.org/irr/committees/environmental/statestudy.pdf
APA's PlanningBooks.com
Edens Lost & Found: How Ordinary Citizens Are Restoring Our Great American Cities
Harry Wiland, Dale Bell, and Joseph D'Agnese, 2006
A vacant lot becomes a park. A rooftop becomes a garden. A scrap of public land becomes an urban farm. Across the country, ordinary citizens are transforming their neighborhoods by creating sustainable urban ecosystems. This book chronicles the efforts of citizens in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle to reclaim polluted, abandoned spaces in their communities.
The Geography of Opportunity: Race and Housing Choice in Metropolitan America
Xavier De Souza Briggs, 2007
Equality begins at home — which is why the inequality of housing choices for racial minorities and low-income families is one of the most pressing issues facing American democracy today. This blockbuster book has analysts, advocates, and practitioners across the country talking about segregation: why it persists; how it undermines education, job prospects, health, and safety; and what can be done to end it.
Other Resources
Growing Smarter — Achieving Livable Communities, Environmental Justice, and Regional Equity
Robert D. Bullard, Editor
The MIT Press, 2007
