Mid-Year Meeting Panelists Discuss Racial Impact Assessments

Panelists included: William West, second-year student at Pace University’s Elisabeth Haub School of Law and Land Use Law Center Scholar; Casey Anderson, Montgomery County Planning Board Chair; and Anamaria Hazard, who focuses on municipal law, commercial real estate, and zoning, planning and land use matters at Dentons law firm and is a former Assistant City Attorney for Atlanta.

West started the panel with an introduction to Racial Impact Assessments (RIAs). RIAs analyze how racial and ethnic groups are, or could be, affected by an existing proposed action, policy, or practice.

A plethora of land use practices and policies furthered segregation and inequity, including racial zoning, restrictive covenants, and redlining. West asserted that as land use helped create inequity, it should have a role in the solution.

Many municipalities have been utilizing RIAs in a variety of ways. For example, in Montgomery County, Maryland, the Office of Legislative Oversight must submit racial equity and social justice impact statements to the County Council for each bill and zoning text amendment. In Seattle, in the process of updating its comprehensive plan, the city conducted an EIS to determine how growth would affect the city; it included a racial impact statement.

Based on his research, West believes RIAs should be automatically initiated for certain actions and include a consideration of alternatives and mitigation, or an explanation for why actions taken should be required. Additionally, he recommended intensive data and input from minority communities in order to consider lived experiences. He noted that traditional tools like public notice, comment periods, and hearings are appropriate, but minority participation should be specifically pursued because RIAs without input from communities of color are fatally defective.

Anderson pushed back on West’s favorable opinion of RIAs, noting issues with implementation such as factual disagreements (e.g. does new market rate development cause housing prices in the immediate area to go up or down?), ideological disagreements, a focus on displacement rather than disinvestment, concern over who decides what to do as a result of the assessment, and possible legal liability as a result of admitting that a government action has (or had) racial impacts.

Hazard highlighted the comprehensive plan strategy for considering racial impacts. By including racial impact considerations in the comprehensive plan, she believes the issues will get the time, breadth, and community feedback they deserve. Hazard also believes RIAs on a case-by-case basis could slow development, including the development of affordable housing. The comprehensive plan approach is more efficient, balancing the need for development with the desire for equity.

West’s article on RIAs will be published in the Zoning and Planning Law Report, and related materials can be found at https://ambar.org/racialimpact.

If you are interested in further coverage of the panel session, please see the ABA Storylink article at https://ambar.org/22racialimact