Land Use, Justice

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Land Use, Justice Health in Oakland

• Swati Prakash
• Community Strategies for Sustainability Justice
• The Pacific Institute
• swati_at_pacinst.org

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West Oakland today

• Historically African-American community, oldest
  in Oakland
• 23,475 residents (65 African-American, 9
  Asian, 11 White, 10 Latino)
• Median household income 21,124
• 82 of West Oakland residents are within 1/8 mile
  (660 feet) of an industrial land use
• Completely circled by four highways I-880,
  I-980, I-580
• Over 60 Truck-related businesses
• U.S. Postal Service distribution center
• Port of Oakland Nations 4th largest container
  port
• Ships
• Trucks
• Trains
• Cranes
• Cargo Handling Equipment
• 2 Railyards tracks that encircle West Oakland

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West Oakland A Brief History

• 1869 final stop on the transcontinental railroad
  at 7th street
• 1957 Cypress Freeway built to connect San
  Francisco to wealthier southern Alameda County
  districts
• 1962 Port of Oakland begins operations as a
  container port
• Today, while Port generates up to 9,000 jobs in
  the Bay Area, only 12 are held by Oakland
  residents
• 1985 Interstate 980 built, completing West
  Oaklands cutoff from downtown Oakland

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West Oakland land use reflective of broader
patterns of environmental injustice

• Urban
• Expulsive zoning
• zoning communities of color as industrial, or
  allowing more nonconforming uses in (Rabin,
  1990)
• Residential segregation
• Made it difficult for people of color to move out
  of polluted neighborhoods into less polluted ones
• Current-day converse is gentrification as
  polluted neighborhoods are cleaned up, more
  market-rate housing is built and long-time
  residents face threat of being priced out
• Public housing treated as an industrial land use

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West Oakland High Health Burden

• West Oakland residents are five times more likely
  to be hospitalized for asthma than the average
  California resident
• West Oakland children ages 5 and under visit the
  emergency room for asthma nearly three times more
  often than children in Alameda County as a whole.
  
• West Oakland residents live on average 10 years
  less than people living in the Oakland hills.
• From 1997 to 1999 10.5 of babies born in West
  Oakland were low birthweight, compared to 6.9 in
  Alameda County and 5 Healthy People 2010 goal.
• Age-adjusted death rate in West Oakland (741 per
  100,000) is 1.7 times higher than that of Alameda
  County (431 per 100,000). Heart disease is the
  leading cause of death.

Source Oakland Berkeley Asthma Coalition
(March 2004) rates age-adjusted to 2000 US
Census population estimates, and Alameda County
Department of Public Health
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Transportation, Industry Health

• Air pollution linked to reduced birthweight
• Prenatal exposure to polyaromatic hydrocarbons
  linked to reduced birthweight
• Fine particulate matter pollution and diesel
  pollution linked to heart disease and death
• Diesel Particulate Matter linked to asthma
  exacerbation, possibly asthma onset
• Co-location of industrial land uses with housing
  creates incentive to stay indoors
• Pedestrian hazards
• Blight, trucks parked on streets ? reduced sense
  of safety
• Neighborhood walkability is strongly linked to
  exercise, healthy weight

Source Perera et al California Air Resources
Board
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Taking action in West Oakland

• Community leaders from West Oakland Environmental
  Indicators Project working to reduce asthma
  impact, air pollution, focusing on healthy homes
• Proposal to build senior housing next to I-980
  freeway raised questions about Citys approval
  process for new housing
• California Air Resources Board Air Quality and
  Land Use guidelines recommend against new
  housing within 500 feet of freeways
• Because Oakland lacks a health department, public
  health costs borne by county
• In 2006 asthma hospitalizations of Oakland
  residents cost the county 52 million

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Taking action in West Oakland

• Current development patterns threaten to
  perpetuate historical environmental injustices,
  or displace residents of color, by favoring
  development that promises to increase tax
  revenues above all other considerations
• October 6, 2006 workshop organized by Pacific
  Institute, West Oakland Environmental Indicators
  Project, Alameda County DPH, 60 participants from
  City Planning, ACDPH, community orgs

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Planning Healthy Cities Oakland

• Recommendations
• Increase formal collaboration between ACDPH and
  City of Oakland
• Information exchange and including public health
  staff on reviews
• Include public health staff on planning
  commission
• Incorporate health measures into EIRs
• Use health impact assessments to evaluate new
  development proposals
• Establish / improve neighborhood planning
  processes
• Follow Up
• Ongoing meetings with Mayors office
• Student research project concrete ways for
  Oakland to incorporate health priorities into
  planning process

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Planners Need Data, Support Tools
Data
Support
Tools
require reinforcement and a commitment from. .
would need to access tools and resources like.
. .
need a better understanding of

• Link between health and land use decisions
• Community health needs

• Planning Agency Leadership Staff
• Elected Officials
• Informed Community Members

• Checklists
• Public health experts
• Legally binding city, state or county policies

Source Ketchel, Martin-Anderson Minor-Massy
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Continuum of Potential Tools
General Plan - LUTE
City-wide planning document
CEQA - Thresholds of Significance
State Law
Upstream to Downstream
Planning Code
City-Specific Guidelines
DTRAC/TAC
Project-by-Project Review
CEQA - EIR
Individual Project Report
Source Ketchel, Martin-Anderson Minor-Massy
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Recommended Strategy
Ideal Outcome Community health needs are
systematically incorporated into Oaklands
planning process.
Source Ketchel, Martin-Anderson Minor-Massy
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The General Plan currently includes policies to
promote health and equity but these policies are
widely dispersed and difficult to implement into
an overarching health strategy.
Maintain and support a viable community
gardening program to foster an appreciation of
local ecology, instill a sense of stewardship and
community, and provide a multi-ethnic,
multi-generational activity open to all.1 -
OSCAR The City is committed to the
identification of issues related to the
consequences of development on racial, ethnic and
disadvantaged socio-economic groups.2 -
LUTE Designate a staff person to conduct
research and disseminate information on physical
planning and design strategies that have been
shown to reduce the opportunities for crime.3 -
Safety Element
1Policy OS-2.3 Community Gardening 2 LUTE
Policy Framework - Policy N5.1 3 Public Safety
Action PS 2.3
Source Ketchel, Martin-Anderson Minor-Massy
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Recommendation Oakland could include a
definition of health in the General Plan in order
to establish clear objectives and goals.
World Health Organization
A state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being and not merely the absence of disease
or infirmity.
Benicias Community Health Safety Element
A healthy community is described by the
following categories physical environment,
social environment, emotional health,
intellectual environment, and spiritual health.
Richmonds Framework for new Health Element
Healthy living and lifestyle for all access to
recreational activities access to public
transit access to healthy foods access to
health services access to affordable housing
healthy environmental quality safe community
safe walkable neighborhoods and livable streets.
Source Ketchel, Martin-Anderson Minor-Massy
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Recommendation CEDA could create an
interdisciplinary public health/planning staff
position and codify it in the General Plan.
Including this position into the General Plan
will ensure consistency throughout changing
political or funding environments.
Source Ketchel, Martin-Anderson Minor-Massy
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Recommendation CEDA could include health data,
goals and directives into the General Plan in
order to provide guidance for developers.
Source Ketchel, Martin-Anderson Minor-Massy
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Recommendation CEDA could determine the level of
significant effects that will trigger the EIR
process.

• An Environmental Impact Report is required when a
  proposed project will have significant effects
  on the physical environment.
• State law allows localities to set their own
  Thresholds of Significance.
• Determining significance is the first major
  decision on the part of the lead agency.
• Proactively setting thresholds benefits the
  locality and the developers.
• Cities and counties in California are taking
  advantage of the technical assistance from the
  Governors office of planning and research.

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Recommendation Oakland could integrate
community health concerns into the planning code.
Quality-of-life examples already in Planning Code.
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Measures of Progress

• September 18th, Sandra Galvez from Alameda County
  Department of Public Health confirmed as member
  of City of Oakland Planning Commission
• More direct communication between Mayors office
  and public health department

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Miles to go. . .

• Direct collaboration between City Planning and
  public health staff still limited
• Review / revision of specific planning codes,
  inclusion of health criteria into CEQA review
  face enormous political opposition
• Limited numbers and capacity of County public
  health staff
• Environmental injustice cannot be resolved by
  replacing industrial areas with residential areas
  more complex solutions needed

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Recommended Reading

• National Academy of Public Administration,
  Addressing Community Concerns How Environmental
  Justice Relates to Land Use Planning and Zoning
• Rabin, Yale, Expulsive Zoning The Inequitable
  Legacy of Euclid in Zoning and the American Dream
  101 (Charles M. Haar and Jerold S. Kayden, eds.
  1990)

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References

• California Air Resources Board, Quantification
  of Health Impacts Economic Valuation of Air
  Pollution from Ports and Goods Movement in
  California. April 2006.
• Ketchel Alana, Sarah Martin-Anderson, Sarah
  Minor-Massy. Community Health and the Land Use
  and Planning Process, UC Berkeley Goldman School
  of Public Policy, May 2007.
• Maantay Juliana, Zoning Law, Health, and En
  vironmental Justice Whats the Connection? The
  Journal of Law and Ethics, vol. 30, no. 4, Winter
  2002, p. 573

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References

• Rabin, Yale, Expulsive Zoning The Inequitable
  Legacy of Euclid in Zoning and the American Dream
  101 (Charles M. Haar and Jerold S. Kayden, eds.
  1990)
• Saelens BE, Sallis JF, Black JB, Chen D.
  Neighborhood-based differences in physical
  activity an environment scale evaluation.Am J
  Public Health. 2003 Sep93(9)1552-8.
• Whyatt RM, Rauh V, Barr DB, Camann DE, Andrews
  HF, Garfinkel R, Hoepner LA, Diaz D, Dietrich J,
  Reyes A, Tang D, Kinney PL, Perera FP. Prenatal
  Insecticide Exposures and Birth Weight and Length
  among an Urban Minority Cohort. Environmental
  Health Perspectives 1121125-1132. (July 2004).