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New research: Advancing environmental justice while rebuilding existing locally unwanted land uses

By Miriam Solis, Planetizen, August 11, 2020

Unlike most studies that focus on conflict around siting locally unwanted land uses, Prof. Solis examines the redevelopment of existing locally unwanted land uses (ELULU). She considers the case study of San Francisco’s Southeast Treatment Plant, located in Bayview-Hunters Point, a historically Black neighborhood. She considers the “at once fickle and stubborn” consequences of urban infrastructure rebuilding, and how the process might advance certain environmental justice outcomes.

Prof. Solis provides two approaches for planners to strengthen their environmental justice efforts: “First, they ought to consider ELULU relocation and decentralization options, resisting the tendency to presume that a facility must be redeveloped. Second, planners need to couple redevelopment, relocation, or decentralization with anti-displacement efforts.”

Read the full article summarizing the research here.

Access Prof. Solis’s article in Journal of Planning Education and Research here (paywall)

Return to the September issue here.

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