Projections 3: Planning for Environmental Justice

FILLING THE METAPHYSICAL LANDSCAPE Aesthetics of Environmental Planning in Val Verde, Los Angeles County CHIKAKO SASSA Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Urban Studies + Planning ABSTRACT Currently a gap exists between the regulatory approach to managing a municipal landfill, and the unofficial narratives of the people who live near the landfill and face a multitude of unpleasant effects on their everyday lives. This fracture between "official" truth and empirical reality stems from divergent construals of landfills as enclosed compartments, from the perspective of planners, and as dynamic, multidimensional, even threatening, elements in the landscape from the perspective of local residents. Understanding this fracture will provide cues for modifying current planning practice to become more responsive to and inclusive of local voice. Working from a case study of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill and the community of Val Verde in ValenCia, California, this research investigates ways to mend this fracture. By examining cultural and symbolic artifacts indicative of the community's relationship to the landfill, this paper suggests how such qualitative knowledge could be linked to the practice of environmental planning. In addition to the standard practices of environmental impact assessment and cost-benefit analYSiS, I advocate for the incorporation of non-traditional, nontextual, and non-scientific information, such as drawings, site visits, and participant observation, into the environmental planning profession and thereby endorse a more humanistic approach to planning. An in-depth study of cultural artifacts of the people of Val Verde revealed that the residents have suffered from both physical and psychological distress caused by the landfill. Sustainable development concepts such as "sanitary landfills" designed to keep damage to a minimum were found to be retrospective, prescriptive, and ineffectual in mitigating the sense of loss experienced by local residents. Landfill stakeholders such as operators, various citizens groups, and the government must work toward a regenerative and preventive landscape, wherein the power to effect change rests among the children - the nascent members of a regenerative future.

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Projections 3: Planning for Environmental Justice

Published on Dec 8, 2022

MIT DUSP

Projections, the Journal of the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, focuses on the most innovative and cutting edge research in planning. Each volume is devoted to a different topic of interest to planning scholars, students, and professionals. As a peer-reviewed publication, Projections welcomes original high quality submissions at the vanguard of planning theory and practice. In many respects, the environmental justice movement holds a mirror to the field of planning. A growing body of evidence suggests that land use controls and emerging statutory frameworks can contribute to the overburdening of low-income and minority districts with the hazards of industrial pollution. At the same time, the distributional effects of planning practice are seldom countered with attempts to adequately enforce industrial performance standards, set up emergency response capabilities, protect residents from the effects of pollution, or include residents in decision-making.