Doctoral Student University of California-Los Angeles, United States
This presentation is the second in a two-part presentation about the interaction between land use and zoning, housing, health and justice in three California cities. In California, each jurisdiction is mandated to periodically update its Housing Element that meets regional housing needs and falls in compliance with the state’s General Plan. California law also requires that Housing and Safety Elements be simultaneously updated, creating the optimal setting for an Environmental Justice Element to be created. Together, these elements influence housing stock and quality, local zoning and siting practices, and environmental health conditions. A city’s Housing Element can influence varying aspects of the urban social-ecological landscape, including impervious surface cover, urban heat island effect, and green spaces. In turn, these impact urban ecosystems and health outcomes of urban dwellers.
In this presentation, we present preliminary findings from a research study that conducted a systematic, and comparative analysis of three Housing Elements in Los Angeles County - Culver City, Huntington Park, and Lynwood. These cities were chosen because of their shared physical characteristics (e.g., their proximity to major roadways and freeways, presence of environmental exposures like oil extraction and industrial facilities, etc.) and ability to be compared and contrasted against one another and Los Angeles County at large. A code matrix generated from a comprehensive literature review, was applied to an analysis of the three Housing Elements. Following the coding of each municipality’s Housing Element, an assessment of both the occurrence and type of strategies employed was made. To address gaps in understanding each city’s strategic approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with planners, advocates and governmental representatives to gain a more nuanced perspective of the planning-health-justice nexus in Housing Elements.
This study highlights how zoning, land use and housing policies are strategically used to create racialized spaces over time, concentrating environmental amenities in wealthier, whiter communities (e.g., public trees and parks) and cumulative hazards and burdens in lower-income, intentionally-segregated communities of color (e.g., freeways and waste facilities). This established pathways for increased incidence of disease, lower life expectancy, greater environmental risks, and climate vulnerability among those deemed disposable in a white supremacist society, trends that we are still observing today amongst frontline communities. Racialized land use and zoning tools coupled with sustained power imbalances cultivate environmental injustices that show up in both our bodies and urban landscapes.
