Created to speed investment in struggling communities, the federal Opportunity Zones program could also spur research into how capital can be better deployed on a district-by-district basis.
A product of the GOP's 2017 tax reform bill, the federal Opportunity Zones program proposes to aid "struggling communities" (though there's been some debate on that score) by enabling greater redevelopment investment in specific census tracts. Here, Bruce Katz discusses why the program could spark more comprehensive research into how specific investments impact and interact with their wider environs.
Katz points to some of the common designations for urban districts: central business districts, anchor districts, residential areas, and the like. "For urban officials, practitioners, researchers or residents themselves, these archetypes are so settled that they rarely elicit discussion or debate. Yet the Opportunity Zone tax incentive enables us to think about each of these distinct areas as possible asset classes or investment sectors."
The Opportunity Zone framework, Katz says, is one way to see past the compartmentalization of urban finance. "At a minimum, the creation of Zone typologies could help motivate major institutions within different kinds of Opportunity Zones to consider how to realize their full economic impact."
See also: New Scrutiny for the Federal 'Opportunity Zones' Program
Read the full story: Rethinking Capital and Geography
Five Years Later: What Have Opportunity Zones Accomplished?
Two recent studies are among the first to attempt a comprehensive account of the effects of the Investing in Opportunity Program, one of the signature place-based policies of the Trump era.
Opportunity Zones Under Investigation by Treasury Inspector General
Along with other members of congress, one of the authors of the law that established the federal Opportunity Zones program has asked the Treasury Department to investigate potential abuse of the program. The Treasury inspector general is obliging.
Census Tract Changes Could Expand Opportunity Zones
Tract boundary revisions for the 2020 Census could mean new opportunity zone designations as well.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
US buildings threatened, destroyed by fires set to triple by 2060
Researchers found a high fire risk for socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods in the American West.
LA residents may be allowed to paint their own crosswalks
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky put out a motion instructing the Los Angeles Department of Public Transportation to study the feasibility of allowing volunteers to paint crosswalks.
Dallas moves to overhaul its zoning code
The city's zoning reform will allow more multi-family and mixed-use developments.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority