How Planning and Zoning Contribute to Inequitable Development, Neighborhood Health, and Environmental Injustice

TLDR

Planning and zoning have historically fostered inequitable development, urban fragmentation, and environmental injustice, shaping neighborhood design and contributing to health disparities. The commentary aims to examine how planning and zoning contribute to inequitable development and its implications for neighborhood design, health disparities, and environmental injustice. The authors show that uneven resource distribution across neighborhoods links to health outcomes such as obesity and cardiovascular disease, and they recommend equity‑focused urban revitalization to improve environments and access to health‑promoting resources in disadvantaged areas.

Abstract

In this commentary, we discuss the ways in which planning and zoning contribute to inequitable development and how this has implications for the design of neighborhoods, health and health disparities, and environmental injustice. We first discuss the history of zoning and planning in this country and their contribution to inequitable development and urban fragmentation. We then describe how the distribution of resources within and between neighborhoods has an impact on neighborhood health by linking neighborhood conditions to health outcomes such as obesity and cardiovascular disease. In this commentary, we also discuss the contributions of planning and zoning to environmental injustice and the production of riskscapes. We conclude with a discussion on the importance of social justice and equity in urban revitalization efforts and make recommendations that can be adopted to improve local social and physical environments and access to health-promoting resources in disadvantaged neighborhoods.