Urban Land explores examples of recent projects where historic assets serve as unlikely catalysts for master-planned community development and economic growth
As Robert Verrier and Michael Binette report, communities across the country are using idle historic assets such as former state mental hospitals and turn-of-the-century manufacturing buildings as "the linchpin for upgrading and stabilizing areas and neighborhoods."
There are many creative funding solutions available to make such projects pencil out, including tax credits for historic preservation or affordable housing. "By creating affordable or market-rate housing and by stabilizing and upgrading neighborhoods while simultaneously preserving a piece of local history, development teams can often realize a raft of tax incentives to make startup viable. But beyond the startup phase, the project itself often proves to be the only incentive needed: Recapturing value from historic assets engages a community's history, people, and institutional memory. "
FULL STORY: Reinventing Historic Assets

Rethinking Redlining
For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

California High-Speed Rail's Plan to Right Itself
The railroad's new CEO thinks he can get the project back on track. The stars will need to align this summer.

Raleigh Launches Greenway Food Truck Pilot to Enhance Park Experiences
Raleigh’s new Greenway Food Truck Pilot Program brings local food vendors to popular greenway locations to enhance park experiences, support small businesses, and encourage community use of public spaces.

‘Displaced By Design:’ Report Spotlights Gentrification in Black Neighborhoods
A new report finds that roughly 15 percent of U.S. neighborhoods have been impacted by housing cost increases and displacement.

Nevada and Utah Groups Oppose Public Land Sell-Off Plan
A set of last-minute amendments to the budget reconciliation bill open up over half a million acres of federally managed land to sales.
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