Sustainability and vulnerability: integrating equity into plans for central city redevelopment

distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Cities around the US are promoting redevelopment efforts in central city neighborhoods in order to foster more-sustainable development patterns. In this paper, we argue that such plans must be grounded in an assessment of the current conditions and existing populations in these neighborhoods. We propose a new way to frame plans for existing communities, using the concept of vulnerability to help us connect current conditions and future goals. Through a case study of the planning process for a transit-oriented redevelopment plan for a central neighborhood in Austin, Texas, we illustrate the difference between current approaches and an alternative approach. Introduction Calls to plan sustainable cities have emerged in response to the mounting evidence linking settlement patterns, human behavior and environmental impacts (Ewing et al. 2008, National Research Council 2009). Policy guides, development benchmarks and best practices recommended by professional planning and green building organizations seek to foster sustainable development by increasing density and promoting greater mixes of land uses to support higher transit use (and less driving) by residents Cities around the US are promoting redevelopment efforts in central city neighborhoods along core transit corridors, in order to achieve these goals. Mixed-use, transit-oriented development plans are also attractive to developers and to elected city officials for their economic benefits. More-compact urban growth, by increasing land values, provides opportunities for redevelopment that will enable landowners and real estate developers to realize higher returns on their property. For city officials, higher land values generate higher property tax revenues and, potentially, sales tax revenue from the retail and service components of mixed-use development. Both environmental and economic rationales for redevelopment implicitly focus on the benefits brought by future residents of redeveloped neighborhoods. An alternative assessment of transit-oriented, mixed-use redevelopment plans focuses on the lives of current residents, and asks how the proposed redevelopment will impact existing households and environmental conditions while achieving broader goals. This …