As communities confront the concurrent policy and planning challenges associated with climate change, environmental injustice, economic and health disparities, and a lack of affordable housing, a growing number of places are starting to revamp their land use and development processes and plans to ensure that revitalization of existing neighborhoods and new growth and investments center equity and inclusivity. These principles and practices of equitable development (EQD) offer a collaborative framework that policymakers and community leaders can adapt as a possible antidote to traditional land development approaches.

As part of Urban’s 2023 engagements with nonprofit, public, and private sector organizations and leaders in Fresno, California, through the Shared Prosperity Partnership (SP2), we undertook a scan of emerging policy and program frameworks that can advance more inclusive and equitable development. In this overview we synthesize these frameworks into a core set of six equitable development principles and then identify five common policies and programs that communities can adopt to advance one or more of these principles. By no means a comprehensive inventory, the overview offers policymakers and community leaders a good starting place for elevating and adapting EQD principles and practices in their communities.

Equitable Development Principles

Our research uncovered multiple definitions of equitable development that often reflect slightly different perspectives of particular organizations and professions, such as PolicyLink, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Government Alliance on Race and Equity. Most definitions and frameworks have a common focus on the built environment, placemaking, land development, and ensuring that current and future land use decisions are inclusive and equitable. EQD principles typically speak to one or more of three areas: (1) planning and development policies, (2) people and diverse communities, and (3) community power and decisionmaking processes. As part of our scan, we found the EQD principles promoted by The Alliance, a regional equity organization from Minneapolis, particularly compelling because they embody the dimensions and perspectives from several EQD frameworks, make the principles accessible for community leaders and local residents, and provide a scorecard for applying the principles to specific development projects. The principles and scorecard rest on this simple proposition: “How can development repair past harms and contribute to a stronger, more inclusive and thriving community?” Through our conversations with local leaders from nonprofits and community-based organizations in Fresno, we adapted The Alliance’s principles of equitable development into the following ones:

• Housing and Neighborhoods includes access to safe, affordable, and quality housing and neighborhoods for everyone to live and thrive in while allowing existing residents to remain in their chosen communities by minimizing the risks of displacement and neighborhood gentrification. This principle further protects tenants, enables opportunities for homeownership, provides quality public amenities, and supports diverse community-scale businesses.
• Environment-, Climate-, and Sustainability-Friendly development protects the communities' natural assets so everyone and every neighborhood has access to clean land, water, air, and green space that can promote good health and general well-being and minimize harm from past and present environmental injustices.
• Community Power and Stewardship strives to ensure that residents have a say over the places in which they live and the services they use, and asserts that local leaders should share power and help communities build their power.
• Equitable Community and Economic Development prioritizes development projects that improve the economic well-being and quality of life for everyone in a community or neighborhood, provide opportunities for wealth building (including by supporting local entrepreneurs and business owners) and jobs, and prevent and mitigate displacement of locally owned businesses.
• Equitable Transportation integrates different transportation modes (including bikes, buses, and trains) with land use and housing policy to develop walkable neighborhoods that provide easy access to transportation so people with low incomes can get to school, to their jobs, and back to their homes.
• Livability is the sum of the factors that make up a community's quality of life and ensures new development will benefit the community as a whole, including the physical and natural environments, public safety, health and well-being, economic prosperity, social stability and equity, educational opportunity, and multicultural placemaking, entertainment, and recreation possibilities.

Emerging Equitable Development Policies and Practices

Beyond these diverse EQD frameworks and principles, the perennial policy challenge is how local governments and their community-based partners, together with developers, property owners, and civic institutions, put these principles into action. How can communities adopt and implement policies and programs that can activate equitable development projects on the ground? Our work in Fresno helped us identify the following five strategies that can advance one or more of the six EQD principles above:

• building community power, housing affordability, and local stewardship through community land trusts
• green community development through ecodistricts
• equitable transit-oriented development that benefits residents and local businesses
• increasing access to affordable housing and opportunity-rich neighborhoods
• promoting economic and community development by supporting small businesses

In the overview, we define each of these strategies, highlight a few examples, and identify key considerations for adoption and implementation.

Related Fact Sheets

• Building Community Power, Housing Affordability, and Local Stewardship through Community Land Trusts
• Equitable Transit-Oriented Development That Benefits Fresno’s Residents
• Green Community Development through Ecodistricts
• Increasing Access to Affordable Housing and Opportunity-Rich Neighborhoods
• Promoting Economic and Community Development by Supporting Small Businesses