Equitable Development Planning and Urban Park Space: Early Insights from DC’s 11th Street Bridge Park Project

R E S E A R C H R E P O R T Equitable Development Planning and Urban Park Space Early Insights from DC’s 11th Street Bridge Park Project Mary Bogle Somala Diby Eric Burnstein with Maia Woluchem and Jay Dev July 2016 N E I G H B O R H O O D I N F O D C A B O U T T H E U R B A N I N S TI T U T E The nonprofit Urban Institute is dedicated to elevating the debate on social and economic policy. For nearly five decades, Urban scholars have conducted research and offered evidence-based solutions that improve lives and strengthen communities across a rapidly urbanizing world. Their objective research helps expand opportunities for all, reduce hardship among the most vulnerable, and strengthen the effectiveness of the public sector. Copyright © July 2016. Urban Institute. Permission is granted for reproduction of this file, with attribution to the Urban Institute. Cover image from OMA+OLIN. Contents Acknowledgments iv Equitable Development Planning and Urban Park Space 1 Background and Context 1 Equity in Urban Planning: An Overview 2 Community Change in the District of Columbia 3 DC’s 11th Street Bridge Park: Planning for Equity 5 Origins of the Park 6 Producing an Equitable Development Plan 10 Measuring Plan Results 14 Early Implementation Milestones 18 Early Insights 19 Conclusion 21 Notes 22 References 23 About the Authors 25 Statement of Independence 26 IV A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S Acknowledgments This report was funded by a contract to the Urban Institute funded under a grant from The Kresge Foundation to Building Bridges Across the River at THEARC. We are grateful to them and to all our funders, who make it possible for Urban to advance its mission. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of Urban experts. Further information on the Urban Institute’s funding principles is available at www.urban.org/support. Equitable Development Planning and Urban Park Space Though urban planners and developers agree that parks and other green spaces are essential to the health and stability of neighborhoods and cities, we have little information on exactly how these large public spaces shape their surrounding communities or how we can use them to ensure equitable and inclusive growth. Though a growing number of cities are converting disused open spaces to parks—for example, rail right-of-ways (Atlanta’s BeltLine), elevated tracks (New York City’s High Line and Paris’s Coulée Verte René-Dumont), and former industrial areas (Newark’s Riverfront Park)—it’s hard to find best practices to ensure local communities reap the benefits of these spaces. This report draws on findings from an implementation study of DC’s 11th Street Bridge Park to articulate potential lessons for the field on how to plan for, measure, and produce equitable results through developing urban common spaces. Background and Context Washington, DC’s 11th Street Bridge Park concept was launched in 2011 by the Department of Planning of the District of Columbia and is now a project of Building Bridges Across the River at THEARC (BBAR). Slated to open by late 2019, the Bridge Park is envisioned as an elevated space for recreation, environmental education, and the arts that connects DC’s Capitol Hill—one of the nation’s most powerful communities—to historic Anacostia—one of the city’s most distressed neighborhoods. The goals of the project are to  create a healthy community by establishing a safe place for residents to exercise and play,  connect the community with the Anacostia River,  reconnect the neighborhoods of Anacostia/Fairlawn and Capitol Hill/Navy Yard, and  generate new jobs and economic activity.Thanks in part to the park’s symbolic geographic juxtaposition, park planners have focused on equity from inception, making the project an especially interesting case for deep inquiry and documentation. This report covers how 11th Street Bridge Park planners used community engagement 2 E Q U I T A B L E D E V E L O P M E NT P L A N N I N G A N D U R B A N PA R K S P A C E to develop the plan’s recommendations, the benchmarks and metrics that will measure equity as the Bridge Park project progresses, and how the first phase of plan implementation is progressing. Upcoming products will continue to track progress and will focus on aspects of special interest to city planners, developers, and concerned citizens. Equity in Urban Planning: An Overview Discussions of equity in urban planning and development are not new. Concepts such as participatory planning were first developed as early as 1969 in reaction to the Urban Renewal movement, which sought to update and systematize distressed sections of American cities through top-down develop-ment projects (Arnstein 1969). Efforts associated with urban renewal included the concentration of public