Moving Beyond Cleanup: Identifying the Crucibles of Environmental Gentrification

H. Spencer Banzhaf and Eleanor McCormik

No 280852, National Center for Environmental Economics-NCEE Working Papers from United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Abstract: This paper reviews the distributional impacts associated with "environmental gentrification" following the cleanup and reuse of Superfund sites, brownfields, and other locally undesirable land uses (LULUs). By making a neighborhood more attractive, cleanup and reuse of LULUs may drive up local real estate prices. Renters in the neighborhood would have to pay higher rents. Although they would also reap a capital gain, homeowners too would face higher housing costs, including perhaps higher tax bills. Moreover, existing residents may not value the removal of the disamenity as much as other households, creating a mismatch between their priorities and the new character of the neighborhood. Thus, even if they do not move, existing residents, especially renters, may be harmed by the gentrification effects of cleanup. If many former residents do move, to be replaced by wealthier households, the character of the neighborhood would change further, feeding the gentrification. Such environmental gentrification is a key concern of local stakeholders. Nevertheless, the extent of environmental gentrification, if any, following cleanup and reuse of LULUs has not been solidly confirmed in the empirical literature. This paper seeks to fill that void by reviewing the evidence to date. We find limited evidence for rising real estate prices following cleanup of LULUs. We find stronger evidence for increased housing density and increasing incomes, but no evidence for racial impacts. Our review also uncovers a variety of factors that are likely to temper the adverse consequences of gentrification for residents.

Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy; Land Economics/Use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54
Date: 2007-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/280852/files/NCEE2007-02.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:nceewp:280852

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.280852

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in National Center for Environmental Economics-NCEE Working Papers from United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().