Low-income communities of color have long struggled with discriminatory land-use practices that diminish our health, safety, and quality of life.

Toxic mixes of industrial development, freeways, and truck routes are concentrated in low-income neighborhoods alongside homes and schools. At the root of this all-too-common pattern are discriminatory land-use regulations that do not protect the community's health.

The way our neighborhoods are planned– or are allowed to degrade because of lack of planning – determines the levels of air pollution and concentration of toxic industries residents experience. Simultaneously, low-income communities of color experience a lack of affordable housing and limited access to public transit, open space and healthy food. Environmental justice will exist when all neighborhoods are treated equally.

The diligence of our dedicated community leaders has resulted in monumental environmental justice victories. Some of these include:

No one is more entitled to determine the future of a community than the residents themselves. EHC's Social Change for Justice Model embodies this belief. By empowering community members through leadership development, organizing and collective advocacy efforts, residents become community leaders whom we advocate with for healthy communities, healthy homes, and environments that are both safe and clean, working to ultimately achieve social and environmental justice.

Thank you for being a part of Creating Healthy Neighborhoods: Community Planning to Overcome Injustice.

The 20-minute video below (in both English and Spanish) illustrates seven steps to fight for environmental justice through community-engaged planning.

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods explores the interconnectedness of issues facing communities and uses real-life examples and case studies to show how real people can become advocates and activists for social and environmental justice in seven steps:

Step One: Identify the Problem
Step Two: Build Power
Step Three: Develop Strategy
Step Four: Develop Core Community Principles
Step Five: Develop the Community Vision
Step Six: Organize and Advocate to Win
Step Seven: Achieve the Vision

To begin your introduction to our community-proven, seven-step process, watch the full Creating Healthy Neighborhoods video and download our leadership training below.

The movie is available for download, or you can purchase a copy of the DVD in English and Spanish.


SESSION 1

SESSION 2

SESSION 3

SESSION 4

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods - English (Download Here)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods - Español (Descargar Aqui)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods: Community Planning to Overcome Injustice

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods explores the interconnectedness of issues facing communities and uses real-life examples and case studies to show how real people can become advocates and activists for social and environmental justice.

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods Trailer - English 

 

Creating Healthy Neighborhoods Trailer - Español

 

Environmental Health Coalition announces a free curriculum and video-learning tool, Creating Healthy Neighborhoods. This inspirational toolkit empowers real people to become leaders for health and justice in their communities, just the way EHC community members have.

The 20-minute full video shows the impacts of toxic pollution and discriminatory land use policies in ways that anyone can understand, empowering everyone to become involved in planning and policymaking. It illustrates seven steps to fight for environmental justice through community-engaged planning. Use this knowledge to gain a fuller understanding of land-use planning – and take action to create healthier, more vibrant and livable communities where you live.

Under California law, all municipalities are required to complete General Plans which provide a blueprint and long range vision for cities. These can be very useful documents providing clear objectives (rollover comment: EHC successfully advocated for an Environmental Health and Justice element in the National City General Plan and a buffer zone between polluters and homes/schools in the Chula Vista General Plan – both firsts in the state), or can have lofty but vague goals. Community, area and specific plans are not required to be completed under state law but when executed are intended to apply General Plan standards to a specific geographic area and can enable communities to determine the density, building height, zoning and amenities for their neighborhood.

These plans have been the focus of EHC’s Community-Driven Planning efforts because they offer the opportunity for self-determination for residents and enable residents to be proactive rather than only reacting to inappropriate development proposals. The planning process is also the most holistic strategy for a community to engage in. It may allow residents, perhaps for the first time, to envision their community using their values and aspirations, not the developer’s or the city councilmember’s.

EHC is currently working on community-driven land-use planning in Barrio Logan, the Greater Logan area and City Heights in the City of San Diego, and in Old Town National City and West Chula Vista. Click on these links for the most current updates.

In each community, the underlying process is the same.

Building Community Power

Authentic community involvement in every aspect of community planning and visioning leads to better outcomes that respect neighborhoods and their residents. EHC’s core strategies, for all our efforts, are community organizing and policy advocacy, which we combine with grassroots leadership development, research and media communications to implement each strategic plan. To ensure that the community’s voice is heard, EHC employs the following tactics:

Community Action Teams: In each community, an EHC Community Action Team comprised of residents who are EHC leaders has been established. These leaders develop the community vision and priorities that direct EHC’s efforts. They serve as the spokespersons for the campaign meetings with elected officials and government agency representatives and on various planning committees established to oversee plan development.

José Medina, National City resident since 1969 and EHC leader, expressed his hopes for the Old Town National City Specific Plan when he said: “The plan will allow me to see the neighborhood change into something I remember when I was a boy, when a lot of residents were connecting with each other. In the mid-80s it changed for the worse – I saw houses flattened and autobody shops moved in.”

Leadership Training—Salud Ambiental Líderes Tomando Acción -- SALTA (Environmental Health, Leaders Taking Action): All EHC leaders complete an eight session Core SALTA training program providing them with skills and knowledge to become effective advocates and community organizers. A five session mini-SALTA focusing on land use also provides training on redevelopment, zoning, and affordable housing, plus air quality, contaminated site clean-up, reducing industrial pollution, and sustainable building, including green building materials and renewable energy options.

Community Surveying: EHC Leaders are committed to understanding the priorities of their neighbors, and representing those needs when developing EHC platforms and positions. Community surveying is often utilized as a method for collecting and documenting these needs. In Old Town National City, for example, leaders surveyed residents and found that development of affordable housing, relocation of autobody shops and changing zoning to prohibit incompatible mixed-use were the highest priorities by far, which were incorporated into the community plan.

Community Visioning: Once aware of the impact and importance of community planning EHC leaders in both Barrio Logan and Old Town National City elected to develop their own neighborhood vision. EHC raised funds to employ a land use planning firm which, working with residents, developed detailed plans including zoning changes, volume and affordability levels of new housing units, identification of industries for relocation, park acreage, school requirements and more.

Barrio Logan’s community plan—one of the City of San Diego’s oldest—has not been updated since 1978. After years of promises and delays, residents took planning into their own hands. The result was the Barrio Logan Vision, now endorsed by over 1000 area residents, 28 community organizations and 16 local businesses. EHC then secured $1.5 million from a neighboring downtown development agency to update and revise the official Barrio Logan Community Plan, a process starting in early 2008. EHC is advocating for the community plan update to be consistent with the Barrio Logan Vision.

Hilda Valenzuela, EHC leader and Barrio Logan resident, expressed her excitement about the start of the planning process: “I hope with the Community Plan Update process we can resolve the problems sooner – improve affordable housing, have a healthier environment for children and a better place to live.”

Ensure Healthy Neighborhoods

For many years, EHC has promoted pollution prevention and the precautionary principle as the best solution to preventing toxic exposure for community residents and workers. Significant changes to these industrial practices are critical for safety but can take many years to accomplish. Communities subjected to toxic exposure due to discriminatory zoning need to take action to protect themselves and create separation between residential and industrial uses.

Buffer Zones

To accomplish this, EHC proposed the Toxic-Free Neighborhoods Ordinance in the City of San Diego in 1990, which would have required a buffer between industries using or emitting hazardous materials and residences, schools, and day care centers. Local polluters spent thousands of dollars lobbying against the ordinance and were ultimately successful in defeating it.

Without an ordinance EHC targeted polluters that chronically violated the law. Master Plating fit the bill with over 150 violations on the books. Community organizing efforts compelled the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and local government to take action resulting in Master Plating’s shutdown in 2002. CARB’s monitoring revealed a cancer risk four times higher than a ‘typical urban area’ due to hexavalent chromium emissions. As a result of this local action, CARB developed the Air Quality and Land Use Handbook in 2005 which recommended buffers for many polluters for the first time in state or local regulatory history. The recommended buffer for chrome platers is 1000 feet. The distance between Master Plating and the house next door was 4 feet! The guidance document also recommends separation of housing and major roadways which is often difficult given that ‘transit-oriented development’ may encourage development very near freeways.

Elvia Martinez, Master Plating’s next door neighbor and EHC leader, said: “This is the way it’s supposed to work…when a community works together to make its neighborhood a better place to live.”

Zoning

Community plans can include zoning ordinances that determine where industrial, commercial and residential areas will be located. Barrio Logan and Old Town National City are plagued with ‘mixed-use’ zoning that allows all three uses to be in the same area. EHC is seeking specific zoning designations that separate industrial areas from residential areas in the new community plans, and removal of mixed-use zoning.

Polluter Relocation and Removal

Rules that prohibit new sensitive uses near pollution sources are important, but in order for residential neighborhoods to truly be restored and healthy, polluters adjacent to homes and schools must be removed or relocated. EHC has pursued a few tactics to accomplish this. In National City, the City Council adopted an amortization ordinance that will phase out industries currently allowed to operate near sensitive uses, which sets up a process for relocation of prioritized industries when the amortization period is triggered.

One of the poorest and most densely populated neighborhoods, City Heights takes the title for the most ethnically diverse community in San Diego, too.

Like other EHC target communities, much of the housing in City Heights remains old and poorly maintained. Our work in City Heights began through our Healthy Kids Campaign, helping families get their children tested for lead poisoning, helping them eliminate lead hazards, and making their homes more energy efficient. This work opened opportunities to participate more fully in broad-based community planning.

In 2010, The California Endowment embarked on a new, 10-year strategic direction: Building Healthy Communities. It aims to support the development of communities where kids and youth are healthy, safe and ready to learn. It selected City Heights as one of 14 communities in California to participate in this initiative. We lead the Built Environment Team that also includes City Heights Community Development Corporation, Proyecto Casas Saludables, and the International Rescue Committee.

Through house meetings, surveys, and community meetings, the team identified heavy traffic on University and Fairmont Avenues as a major concern. Heavy-duty trucks and cars emit air pollution and frustrate walkability for families.

Sherman-Heights-Comm-Ctr

The communities of Sherman Heights, Grant Hill and Stockton are connected to Logan Heights and Memorial by the Commercial Street/Imperial Avenue Corridor. These communities are referred to as Historic Barrio District. All of these communities are included in the large Southeastern San Diego Community Plan, adopted in 1987.

Individual neighborhoods have created various official revitalization plans and community visions:

Sherman Heights Revitalization Action Plan - 1995

Grant Hill Revitalization Action Program - 1998

Greater Logan Heights Neighborhoods First Quality of Life Plan – 2008/09

The Planning Department of the City of San Diego is currently coordinating development of a Commercial/Imperial Corridor Master Plan. EHC is working primarily with the Historic Barrio District Community Development Corporation (that includes the neighborhoods of Sherman Heights, Grant Hill, Stockton, Logan Heights and Memorial) to influence this vision of the Corridor as a vibrant community link.

Merchants located on Imperial Avenue have long complained that the area is "red lined" making it difficult to get loans and insurance. Insurance rates are 5-10 times higher than other parts of the city.

EHC's Associate Director Georgette Gomez is Vice President of the Historic Barrio District Community Development Corporation, chairing the community and economic development committee.

According to the Industrial Element of the Community Plan:

Rezonings in the 1970s, aimed at upgrading uses and providing industrial sites have not resulted in a change of uses. "Strip" industrial zoning in the western portion of the community has resulted in access problems and conflicts with adjoining uses. These strips are located along Imperial Avenue between Interstate 5 and 22nd Street, and along Commercial Street between Interstate 5 and Bancroft Street. In these strips, there is a mixture of residential and industrial uses which is permitted under the current industrial zoning. These areas were chosen for industrial development in part on the basis of the existence of railroad tracks within Commercial Street; however little use has been made of this advantage. The expected development has not materialized since the adoption of the community plan in 1969, as residences have not given way to industrial development. The industrial activities present in these areas are typified by warehousing, distribution and automobile dismantling. These uses hire few people, are environmentally incompatible with adjacent development and are aesthetically unpleasant. (emphasis added)

Atlas Chemical, Inc. on Commercial Street is one of these incompatible business. It stores and distributes a wide variety of toxic and hazardous materials within feet of homes.

Unfortunately, the draft Master Plan calls for the continuation of Commercial Street for light industrial, only gradually transitioning to commercial, residential, community serving and cultural uses.

Subcategories

Under California law, all municipalities are required to complete General Plans that provide a blueprint for a long-range vision for cities. EHC successfully advocated for an Environmental Health and Justice element in the National City General Plan and a buffer zone between polluters and homes/schools in the Chula Vista General Plan – both firsts in the state. State law does not require the completion of community, area and specific plans, but when executed they apply General Plan standards to a specific geographic area to enable communities to determine the density, building height, zoning and amenities for their neighborhoods.

EHC’s community-driven planning efforts have focused on these plans because they offer the opportunity for self-determination for residents and enable residents to be proactive rather than reactive to inappropriate development proposals. The process also represents a holistic strategy for a community to engage in planning. It may allow residents, perhaps for the first time, to envision their community using their values and aspirations, not the developer’s or the city councilmember’s.

EHC currently works on community-driven land-use planning in Barrio Logan, City Heights and Sherman/Logan Heights in the City of San Diego, and in National City.

In each community, the underlying process is the same.

Building Community Power

BarrioLoganCommunityPlanningAuthentic community involvement in every aspect of community planning and visioning leads to better outcomes that respect neighborhoods and their residents. EHC’s core strategies for all our efforts include community organizing and policy advocacy, which we combine with grassroots leadership development, research and communications to implement each strategic plan. To ensure that the community’s voice is heard, EHC employs the following tactics:

  • Community Action Teams
    In each community, EHC establishes a Community Action Team comprising residents trained as EHC leaders. These leaders develop the community vision and priorities that direct our efforts. They serve as spokespersons for the campaign at meetings with elected officials and government agency representatives and on various planning committees established to oversee plan development.

    José Medina, National City resident since 1969 and EHC leader, expressed his hopes for the Old Town National City Specific Plan when he said: “The plan will allow me to see the neighborhood change into something I remember when I was a boy, when a lot of residents were connecting with each other. In the mid-80s it changed for the worse – I saw houses flattened and autobody shops moved in.”
  • Leadership Training— SALTA (Salud Ambiental Líderes Tomando Acción -- Environmental Health, Leaders Taking Action)
    All EHC leaders complete an eight-session Core SALTA training program providing them with skills and knowledge to become effective advocates and community organizers. A five-session mini-SALTA focusing on land use also provides training on redevelopment, zoning, and affordable housing, plus air quality, contaminated site cleanup, reducing industrial pollution, and sustainable building, including green building materials and renewable energy options.

  • Conducting Community Surveys
    EHC Leaders commit to understanding the priorities of their neighbors and representing those needs when developing EHC platforms and positions. They utilize community surveying as a method for collecting and documenting these needs. In National City, for example, leaders surveyed residents and found that the highest priorities included development of affordable housing, relocation of auto body shops and changing zoning to prohibit incompatible mixed-use. These community priorities were incorporated into the community plan.

  • Community Visioning
    Once aware of the impact and importance of community planning EHC leaders in both Barrio Logan and Old Town National City elected to develop their own neighborhood vision. EHC raised funds to employ a land-use planning firm to work with residents to develop detailed plans with zoning changes, volume and affordability levels of new housing units, identification of industries for relocation, park acreage, school requirements and more. Barrio Logan’s community plan—one of the City of San Diego’s oldest—had not been updated since 1978. After years of promises and delays, residents took planning into their own hands. This resulted in the Barrio Logan Vision, now endorsed by over 1,000 area residents, community organizations and local businesses. EHC then secured $1.5 million from a neighboring downtown development agency for the City to update and revise the official Barrio Logan Community Plan, a process starting in early 2008. EHC pushes for the community plan update to be consistent with the Barrio Logan Vision.

    Hilda Valenzuela, EHC leader and Barrio Logan resident, expressed her excitement about the start of the planning process: “I hope with the Community Plan Update process we can resolve the problems sooner – improve affordable housing, have a healthier environment for children and a better place to live.”

Ensure Healthy Neighborhoods

For many years, EHC has promoted pollution prevention and the precautionary principle as the best way to prevent toxic exposure for community residents and workers. Communities subjected to toxic exposure due to discriminatory zoning need to take action to protect themselves and create separation between residential and industrial land uses. They must also ensure that industrial businesses adopt and implement the most up-to-date technology.

  • Buffer Zones
    EHC proposed the Toxic-Free Neighborhoods Ordinance in the City of San Diego in 1990, which would have required a buffer between industries using or emitting hazardous materials and residences, schools, and day care centers. Local polluters spent thousands of dollars lobbying against the ordinance and ultimately defeated it. Without an ordinance, EHC targeted polluters that chronically violated the law. Master Plating fit the bill with over 150 violations on the books. Community organizing efforts compelled the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and local government to take action resulting in Master Plating’s shutdown in 2002. CARB’s monitoring revealed a cancer risk four times higher than a "typical urban area" due to hexavalent chromium emissions. As a result of this local action, CARB developed the Air Quality and Land Use Handbook in 2005 that recommended buffers for many polluters for the first time in state or local regulatory history. The recommended buffer for chrome platers is 1,000 feet. The distance between Master Plating and the house next door was 4 feet. The guidance document also recommends separation of housing and major roadways, which presents difficulties with "transit-oriented development" that may encourage development very near freeways.

    Elvia Martinez, Master Plating’s next door neighbor and EHC leader, said: “This is the way it’s supposed to work…when a community works together to make its neighborhood a better place to live.”

  • Zoning
    Community plans can include zoning ordinances that determine where industrial, commercial and residential areas can be located. "Mixed-use" zoning that allows free uses in the same area plagues Barrio Logan and National City. EHC seeks specific zoning designations in the new community plans that separate industrial areas from residential areas and remove incompatible mixed-use zoning.

  • Polluter Relocation and Removal
    Rules that prohibit new sensitive uses near pollution sources help, but to restore residential neighborhoods and make them healthy places to live, polluters adjacent to homes and schools must be relocated. EHC has pursued several tactics to accomplish this. In National City, the City Council adopted an amortization ordinance that will phase out industries currently allowed to operate near sensitive uses such as schools. The ordinance sets up a process for relocation of prioritized industries when the amortization period is triggered.