African-American Participation in Local Land Use Decisions in the Post-Urban Renewal Era, 1970-2010
Posted: 2 Nov 2011
Date Written: November 1, 2011
Abstract
It has been well documented that major economic development initiatives in the city of Atlanta are planned by and advance the interests of particular members of the community (Hunter 1953; Stone 1989). However, widespread discontent with the vestiges of urban renewal in the city and a rise in the power of Black elected officials at the local and state level, helped set the political opportunity for an institutionalized mechanism for wider citizen participation in Atlanta’s land use decisions. In 1974, the neighborhood planning unit system was established within the city’s new charter. This new system was designed to give community groups and residents a voice in land use decisions that affected their neighborhoods. The effectiveness of this system over time, especially for Black residents, has not been addressed in previous research. In this paper, I seek to examine how the NPU system affects African- American residents’ ability to advance their land use interests in Atlanta, particularly in the city’s most economically disadvantaged communities. The two main research questions of this paper are: 1. How have the neighborhood planning units provided Black residents with an opportunity to influence land use decisions in their inner-city neighborhoods? 2. Has the NPU system allowed for more democracy in local land-use planning or has it reinforced Atlanta’s tradition of elite-centered governance? I use archival research and interview data to answer these questions.
Keywords: citizen participation, black neighborhoods, Atlanta, land use decisions
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