Q. What is community revitalization?

A. Community revitalization refers to the process of turning economically weak and physically deteriorating urban areas into healthy, vibrant neighborhoods. Legislative efforts to revitalize communities should work to concentrate growth on existing urban areas and bring economic development to disadvantaged neighborhoods. There are a variety of policy tools that can be used to revitalize urban areas and reduce sprawl.

Q. How does revitalizing communities protect the environment?

A. Strengthening cities is beneficial to the environment. When urban areas have good schools, job opportunities, an adequate supply of housing, safe and reliable transportation systems, and low crime rates, they become attractive places for families to live and business to set up shop. Consequently, revitalizing declining urban neighborhoods and creating safe, pleasant, and economically robust communities lowers development pressure on open space in outer suburbs and reduces the multiple environmental problems associated with sprawl.

Q. Does revitalization lead to higher housing costs and drive low-income residents out of their neighborhoods?

A. Revitalization may lead to higher housing costs. However, this is not necessarily bad. The higher housing prices that are produced by revitalization efforts are a manifestation of the increasing housing demand that livable, economically strong neighborhoods create. Housing prices go up in response to the fact that people want to live in the neighborhood. In addition, an increase in the total value of the stock of housing in an area increases the tax base.

 

Because revitilization may lead to higher housing costs, it is important for revitalization efforts to include the development of affordable housing in the targeted area. When affordable housing is provided, low income residents are less likely to be priced out of their neighborhoods. Furthermore, when revitalization programs build affordable housing, the homes are typically in better condition and closer to employment opportunities than other housing options for low income people.

Q. What is spatial mismatch?

A. Spatial mismatch refers to an imbalance between the amount of housing in an area and the number of jobs available for the area’s residents. The impacts of this problem are most commonly felt by low-income residents of older urban neighborhoods. As businesses abandon inner cities and inner-ring suburbs for fringe suburbs, they remove employment opportunities from the areas where they are most needed. Spatial mismatch intensifies the concentration of poverty that exists in many cities and exacerbates the feelings of despair and hopelessness that often plague low-income neighborhoods.

Q. Don’t growth boundaries and other limits on development violate private-property rights?

A. Not for most of us. We all live by certain rules governing our property, like zoning laws. Many of us have property values at stake. Relatively few people profit from sprawling development while many may see taxes rise and property values fall as a result of sprawl.

 

Also, private interests must be balanced against public interests like preserving our precious natural resources and reducing pollution.

Q. Don’t urban-growth boundaries drive up housing costs, reducing the amount of affordable housing?

A. No. Well-planned development can lower the price of a new home by more than $10,000, according to a recent study of 18 communities in Michigan, conducted for the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments.

 

Opponents of urban-growth boundaries often bring up the “soaring” housing costs in Portland, Ore. Its population has grown by almost 50 percent since its growth boundary was established in 1975, yet only 2 percent more land has been consumed. However, this has not created an unusually high gap between the affordable housing supply and demand, relative to other cities. Similar-sized cities like Denver, Seattle and San Francisco, which have no growth boundaries, have equal or higher housing prices than Portland. The sad reality is that an adequate supply of affordable housing is a problem in many U.S. cities. Smart-growth policies can help address that problem.