Zoning, equity, and public health

Abstract

Zoning, the most prevalent land use planning tool in the United States, has substantial implications for equity and public health. Zoning determines where various categories of land use may go, thereby influencing the location of resulting environmental and health impacts. Industrially zoned areas permit noxious land uses and typically carry higher environmental burdens than other areas. Using New York City as a case study, the author shows that industrial zones have large residential populations within them or nearby. Noxious uses tend to be concentrated in poor and minority industrial neighborhoods because more affluent industrial areas and those with lower minority populations are rezoned for other uses, and industrial zones in poorer neighborhoods are expanded. Zoning policies, therefore, can have adverse impacts on public health and equity. The location of noxious uses and the pollution they generate have ramifications for global public health and equity; these uses have been concentrated in the world's poorer places as well as in poorer places within more affluent countries. Planners, policymakers, and public health professionals must collaborate on a worldwide basis to address these equity, health, and land use planning problems.