Seven Principles to Guide Infrastructure Planning
The process for making decisions about infrastructure—what will be built or repaired, where it will happen, and how it will be paid for—should benefi t broad constituencies, and the employment opportunities created as a result of infrastructure decisions should be available to people of color and residents of low-income communities. It is with such goals in mind—achieving equity for both people and place—that PolicyLink developed the following equity principles. Taken together, they comprise a checklist to guide infrastructure decision-making to ensure that everyone benefits from infrastructure investments.
Principle 1: Infrastructure decisions have widespread impact on housing, development, investment patterns, and quality of life and the outcomes of those decisions must be fair and beneficial to all.
Principle 2: Infrastructure plans should not have to compete with health, education, and human service needs but should be recognized as equally critical governmental and societal responsibilities that produce equitable results.
Principle 3: Budget priorities within infrastructure areas (for example, repairing levees vs. restoring wetlands to insure storm protection; more buses vs. new rail systems to improve transportation options; building hospitals vs. community clinics to address community health needs) should be thoroughly assessed using an equity lens.
Principle 4: Services and opportunities created by infrastructure decisions should be available and accessible to everyone in all types of communities.
Principle 5: Employment and economic benefits associated with building and maintaining infrastructure should be shared throughout the region.
Principle 6: The means for collecting revenues to support infrastructure improvements should be determined and applied in ways that are fair and not disproportionately burden those with lower incomes.
Principle 7: Infrastructure decision-making should be transparent and include mechanisms for everyone to contribute to the planning and policymaking process.
Read more about infrastructure planning in the PolicyLink brief, Safety, Growth, and Equity: Infrastructure Policies that Promote Opportunity and Inclusion.