by
Anonymous
Washington, DC July, 2003 – A report released by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) finds that inadequate land use planning and zoning laws usually result in increased environmental and health hazards for low-income and minority neighborhoods. The report urges local, state and federal environmental, planning and zoning agencies to launch meaningful environmental justice initiatives and to use them to solve existing problems and prevent future inequities.
Addressing Community Concerns: How Environmental Justice Relates to Land Use Planning and Zoning focuses on low-income and minority neighborhoods in five communities (Huntington Park, California; Austin, Texas; Chester, Pennsylvania; Altgeld Gardens in Chicago, Illinois; and St. James Parish, Louisiana) and examines how they have been impacted, negatively or positively, by state, local and federal government decisions concerning land use and zoning. Many localities, the report concludes, do not fully or creatively use their powers to address these pressing community concerns. A copy of the full report can be found at http://www.napawash.org.
“Local officials have ample authority to make land use planning and zoning decisions that take into account local citizens’ concerns about potential environmental and public health impacts,” said Dr. Phillip Rutledge, chair of the Academy panel that conducted the study. “Environmental justice is a basic duty of local public administrators, as well as state and federal officials because good governance must be fair, just and equitable.”
Rutledge, an Academy Fellow, is Professor Emeritus at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Others on the Panel included Academy Fellows A. James Barnes, Professor of Law and Environment, Indiana University; Teodoro Benavides, City Manager, Dallas, Texas; Jonathan Howes, Professor of Planning and Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; David Mora, City Manager, Salinas, California; James Murley, Director, Joint Center for Environmental and Urban Problems, Florida Atlantic University; and Sylvester Murray, Professor of Public Administration, Cleveland State University.
This article courtesy of http://www.environmentalconsultants.greendotdirectory.com.
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