Land Use & Health

• Throughout California, low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately burdened by environmental health hazards. Race is the most significant predictor of whether a person lives near contaminated air, water, or soil. People of color make up more than half of the population living near toxic waste sites.
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• South Los Angeles is ranked in the top 10% most polluted communities in the state, and is overburdened with industrial facilities, hazardous waste, and contaminated land.
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• Land use incompatibility—the practice of siting incompatible land uses in close proximity to each other, such as a polluting facility near a residential neighborhood, school, or hospital—contributes to poor health outcomes. South Central Los Angeles experiences high levels of land use incompatibility.
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• Several Los Angeles communities contain facilities that emit toxic pollution. In Southeast Los Angeles—predominately a community of color—roughly one-fifth of its residents live adjacent to noxious land uses.
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• South Los Angeles lacks green spaces and parks, as well as sufficient transit and active transportation infrastructure, and is facing an affordable housing crisis.

• Residents of South Los Angeles are expected to live nearly 12 years less than residents of Brentwood, in addition to experiencing higher rates of lung cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
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• Research shows that the cumulative burden of living in close proximity to clusters of low-level pollution emitting facilities can result in negative health outcomes, such as higher rates of asthma, heart disease, low birthweight, psychosocial stress, and mental health impacts.¹
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• Chronic exposure to toxics emitted by industrial facilities can result in short- and long-term negative health outcomes including asthma attacks, organ damage, and cancer.²
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• Research has demonstrated that communities of color and low-income neighborhoods such as South Central LA disproportionately experience poorer health outcomes, much of which are directly attributable to social and environmental factors.³

• We need community-driven land use planning that creates healthy neighborhoods and builds the capacity of local residents to meaningfully engage in and lead decision-making processes.
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• Elected officials, agencies, and other decision-makers have a responsibility to promote and practice land use planning and development that is grounded in equity and justice and directly addresses health disparities.
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• Green Zones are one approach to resolving poor planning and pollution in our communities. This place-based strategy uses community-led solutions to transform areas overburdened by pollution into healthy and thriving neighborhoods. Green Zones lift up the voices and visions of residents first and foremost, and are comprehensive, community-led, solution-oriented, and collaborative.
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• PSR-LA is addressing land use incompatibility in South Central as one strategy to transform the community into a Green Zone. Incompatible land uses can be resolved with stronger regulations that buffer industrial pollution from residential land and prohibits new toxic land use near homes.
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• We engage in local and state-level policy solutions that mitigate pollution in overburdened neighborhoods, strengthen regulation and enforcement of polluting industries, create spaces for community voices and solutions in land-use decisions, and generate investments for impacted communities.

Our work builds on and uplifts the knowledge, experience, and expertise of community residents in order to inform policy development and decisions. We work closely with our community-based partners to learn from and build capacity through workshops, popular education tools, and community tours. Additionally, because our work is intersectional, we support our allies in addressing broader issues of the built environment. 

Our goal is to equip our team, members, and residents to engage with legislators and decision-makers. We work alongside them to tackle myriad issues including those related to housing, transportation, parks and open space, and economic development. Together we can ensure our built environment is equitable, healthy, and safe for all Angelenos to live, play, work, and thrive.