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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 16, 2003
Contact Suellen Terrill Keiner, (202) 347-3190
A National Academy of Public Administration
Panel recommends that local governments make full use of their
land use planning and zoning authorities to solve environmental
justice problems. Many localities do not fully or creatively
mobilize their powers to address these pressing community
concerns, the Panel found. It urges local, state, and federal
environmental, planning and zoning agencies to launch meaningful
environmental justice initiatives and integrate those efforts
into the implementation of their core programs.
"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," said Dr. Phillip Rutledge, Chair of the Panel
that conducted the study. "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. When they do this,
they can produce significant progress toward achieving environmental
justice."
Addressing Community Concerns: How Environmental
Justice Relates to Land Use Planning and Zoning is the Panel's
third report on environmental justice. It focuses on low-income
and people-of-color communities because it is generally recognized
that their residents are exposed to significantly greater
environmental and public health hazards. The study examines
the relationship of planning and zoning decisions in five
localities across the nation where residents have raised environmental
justice concerns: Huntington Park, California; Austin, Texas;
Chester, Pennsylvania; Altgeld Gardens in Chicago, Illinois;
and St. James Parish, Louisiana
The report will help local, state and federal
officials to improve their understanding of how they can use
local and state land use planning and zoning laws for solving
current environmental justice problems and preventing them
in the future. Specifically, the Panel recommends that:
· Officials with responsibility for
planning, zoning, public health, and environmental protection
must take immediate steps to determine whether residents in
low-income and people-of-color neighborhoods are exposed to
excessive pollution or other public health hazards. They must
use legal tools to eliminate or prevent pollution and communicate
with their citizens about when and how these risks will be
reduced or eliminated.
· Mayors, county executives, and
governors, as well as local and state legislative bodies,
must demonstrate leadership by mobilizing their land use planning
and zoning powers to address environmental justice problems;
by improving citizen participation in decisions that have
environmental or public health impacts; and by providing more
timely and helpful information to the public about local land
use planning, zoning, facility siting, and permitting decisions.
· Federal, state, and local officials must cooperate
when responding to environmental justice issues and must ensure
that their efforts are mutually compatible and reinforcing.
They should share information, coordinate their public outreach
and enforcement actions, and develop joint strategies for
mitigating local environmental and public health hazards,
especially in low-income and people-of-color communities.
· City and county officials must
also give serious consideration to the environmental and public
health consequences of their decisions on land use planning
and zoning, and they must learn more about how their actions
could impact all community residents.
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-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.
Click
here for the full report (PDF 325 pages).
Due to the size of the report, it has been broken up into
sections:
Chapters 1-4
(PDF 68 pages)
Chapters 5-6
(PDF 59 pages)
Chapters 7-9
(PDF 104 pages)
Appendix (PDF
94 pages)
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