Infill

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In urban planning, infill, or in-fill, is the rededication of land in an urban environment, usually open-space, to new construction. [1] Infill also applies, within an urban polity, to construction on any undeveloped land that is not on the urban margin. The slightly broader term "land recycling" is sometimes used instead. Infill has been promoted as an economical use of existing infrastructure and a remedy for urban sprawl. [2] Detractors view increased urban density as overloading urban services, including increased traffic congestion and pollution, and decreasing urban green-space. [3] [4] Many also dislike it for social and historical reasons, partly due to its unproven effects and its similarity with gentrification. [5]

Contents

Example of a potential urban infill site Baulucke in Koln-Weidenpesch (9506).jpg
Example of a potential urban infill site

In the urban planning and development industries, infill has been defined as the use of land within a built-up area for further construction, especially as part of a community redevelopment or growth management program or as part of smart growth. [6] [7]

It focuses on the reuse and repositioning of obsolete or underutilized buildings and sites. [8]

Urban infill projects can also be considered as a means of sustainable land development close to a city's urban core.

Redevelopment or land recycling are broad terms which include redevelopment of previously developed land. Infill development more specifically describes buildings that are constructed on vacant or underused property or between existing buildings. [9] Terms describing types of redevelopment that do not involve using vacant land should not be confused with infill development. Infill development is commonly misunderstood to be gentrification, which is a different form of redevelopment. [5]

Urban infill development vs. gentrification

A car park in Manhattan adjacent to multi-story buildings. Such vacant lots are often temporary, the old buildings having been demolished for infill development. Manhattancarpark.JPG
A car park in Manhattan adjacent to multi-story buildings. Such vacant lots are often temporary, the old buildings having been demolished for infill development.

Infill development is sometimes a part of gentrification thus providing a source of confusion which may explain social opposition to infill development. [5]

Gentrification is a term that is challenging to define because it manifests differently by location, and describes a process of gradual change in the identity of a neighborhood. [10] Because gentrification represents a gradual change, scholars have struggled to draw a hard line between ordinary, natural changes in a neighborhood and special, unnatural ones based in larger socio-economic and political structures. [10]

While the exact definition of gentrification varies by scholar, most can agree that gentrification redevelops a lower income neighborhood in a way that attracts higher income residents, or caters to their increasing presence. [11] Peter Moskowitz, the author of How to Kill a City, has more specifically put gentrification into context by describing it as a process permitted by "decades of racist housing policy" and perpetuated through a "political system focused more on the creation and expansion of business opportunities than the well-being of its citizens." [11] Gentrification is most common in urban neighborhoods, although it has also been studied in suburban and rural areas. [10]

A defining feature of gentrification is the effect it has on residents. Specifically, gentrification results in the physical displacement of lower class residents by middle or upper class residents. [5] The mechanism by which this displacement most traditionally occurs is through rental increases and increases in property values. [11] As gentrifiers start moving into a neighborhood, developers make upgrades to the neighborhood that are catered to them. The initial influx of middle class gentry occurs due to the affordability of the neighborhood combined with attractive developments that have already been made in the neighborhood. [11] In order to accommodate these new residents, local governments will change zoning codes and give out subsidies to encourage the development of new living spaces. [12] Rental increases are then justified by the new capital and demand for housing coming into an area. [10] Through increased rents for existing shops and rental units, long time residents and shopkeepers are forced to move, making way for the more new development. [12]

The major difference between gentrification and infill development is that infill development does not always involve physical displacement whereas gentrification does. [5] This is because infill development describes any development on unused or blighted land. When successful, infill development creates stable, mixed income communities. [5] Gentrification is more strongly associated with the development of higher-end shopping centers, apartment complexes, and industrial sites. These structures are developed on used land, with the goal of attracting higher income residents to maximize the capital of a certain area. The mixed income communities seen during gentrification are inherently transitional (based on how gentrification is defined), whereas the mixed-income communities caused by infill development are ideally stable. [5]

Despite their differences, similarities between gentrification and infill development are apparent. Infill development can involve the development of the same high-end residential and non-residential structures seen with gentrification (i.e. malls, grocery stores, industrial sites, and apartment complexes) and it often brings middle and upper-class residents into the neighborhoods being developed. [5]

Social challenges

The similarities, and subsequent confusion, between gentrification and infill housing can be identified in John A. Powell’s broader scholarship on regional solutions to urban sprawl and concentrated poverty. This is particularly clear in his article titled Race, poverty, and urban sprawl: Access to opportunities through regional strategies. [5] In this work, he argues that urban civil rights advocates must focus on regional solutions to urban sprawl and concentrated poverty. [5] To make his point, powell focuses on infill development, explaining that one of the major challenges to it is the lack of advocacy that it receives locally from urban civil rights advocates and community members. [5] He cites that the concern within these groups is that infill development will bring in middle and upper-class residents and cause the eventual displacement of low-income residents. [5] The fact that infill development "is mistakenly perceived as a gentrification process that will displace inner city residents from their existing neighborhoods," demonstrates that there exists confusion between the definitions of the terms. [5]

Powell also acknowledges that there is historical merit to these concerns, citing how during the 1960s infill development proved to favor white residents over minorities and how white-flight to the suburbs occurred throughout the mid-to-late twentieth century. [5] Many opponents to infill development are "inner-city residents of color." [5] They often view "return by whites to the city as an effort to retake the city" that they had previously left. This alludes to the fear of cultural displacement, which has most often been associated with gentrification, [13] but can also apply to infill development. Cultural displacement describes the “changes in the aspects of a neighborhood that have provided long-time residents with a sense of belonging and allowed residents to live their lives in familiar ways.” [14] Due white flight throughout the mid-to-late 20th century, minorities began to constitute the dominant group in inner-city communities. In the decades following, they developed distinct cultural identities and power within these communities. Powell suggests that it is unsurprising that they would want to risk relinquishing this sense of belonging to an influx of upper class white people, especially considering the historical tensions leading up to white flight in urban areas across the country throughout the mid to late 20th century. [5]

Benefits of infill development

Despite these concerns, Powell claims that, depending on the city, the benefits of infill development may outweigh the risks that such groups are concerned about. For example, poor cities with high levels of vacant land (such as Detroit) have much to gain through infill development. [5] He also addresses the concern that minority groups will lose power in these communities by explaining how "cities like Detroit and Cleveland are far from being at risk of political domination by whites." [5]

The ways that Powell believes infill development could help poor cities like Detroit and Cleveland are through the increase in middle class residents and the new buildings that are constructed in the neighborhoods. These new buildings are an attractive alternative to blight, so they can have the benefit of improving property values for lower-class homeowners. [5] While increases property values can sometimes force non-homeowners to relocate, Powell suggests that in poor cities there are enough options for relocation that the displacement often remains "intra-jurisdictional." [5] Another benefit of infill development is the raising of the tax base, which brings more revenue into the city and improves the city’s ability to serve its residents. [5] Infill development's ability to eradicate old industrial sites and city-wide blight also can improve the quality of life for residents and spark much-needed outside investment in cities. [5]

Considering the confusion between gentrification and infill development, a major obstacle for advocates of infill development is to educate community members on the differences between infill development and gentrification. [13] Doing so requires explaining that infill projects use vacant land and do not displace lower income residents, but instead benefit them in the creation of stable, mixed-income communities. [5] Addressing the issue of cultural displacement is also paramount, as infill development still has the potential to shift the cultural identity of a neighborhood even if there is no physical displacement associated with it. [13]

Logistical challenges

Although urban infill is an appealing tool for community redevelopment and growth management, it is often far more costly for developers to develop land within the city than it is to develop on the periphery, in suburban greenfield land. [15] Costs for developers include acquiring land, removing existing structures, [16] and testing for and cleaning up any environmental contamination. [15]

Scholars have argued that infill development is more financially feasible for development when it occurs on a large plot of land, with several acres. [16] Large-scale development benefits from what economists call economies of scale and reduces the surrounding negative influences of neighborhood blight, crime, or poor schools. [16] However, large scale infill development is often difficult in a blighted neighborhood for several reasons, such as the difficulties in acquiring land and in gaining community support.

Amassing land is one challenge that infill development poses, but greenfield development does not. Neighborhoods that are targets for infill often have parcels of blighted land scattered among places of residence. Developers must be persistent to amass land parcel by parcel and often find resistance from landowners in the target area. [16] One way to approach that problem is for city management to use eminent domain to claim land. However, that is often unpopular with city management and neighborhood residents. Developers must also deal with regulatory barriers, visit numerous government offices for permitting, interact with a city management that is frequently unwilling to use eminent domain to remove current residents, and generally engage in public-private partnerships with local government. [16]

Developers also meet with high social goal barriers in which the local officials and residents are not interested in the same type of development. Although citizen involvement has been found to facilitate the development of brownfield land, residents in blighted neighborhoods often want to convert vacant lots to parks or recreational facilities, but external actors seek to build apartment complexes, commercial shopping centers, or industrial sites. [4] [17]

Suburban infill

Suburban infill is the development of land in existing suburban areas that was left vacant during the development of the suburb. It is one of the tenets of New Urbanism and smart growth, trends that urge densification to reduce the need for automobiles, encourage walking, and save energy ultimately. [18] In New Urbanism, an exception to infill is the practice of urban agriculture in which land in the urban or suburban area is retained to grow food for local consumption.

Infill housing

Infill housing is the insertion of additional housing units into an already-approved subdivision or neighborhood. They can be provided as additional units built on the same lot, by dividing existing homes into multiple units, or by creating new residential lots by further subdivision or lot line adjustments. Units may also be built on vacant lots.

Infill residential development does not require the subdivision of greenfield land, natural areas, or prime agricultural land, but it usually reduces green space. In some cases of residential infill, existing infrastructure may need expansion to provide enough utilities and other services: increased electrical and water usage, additional sewage, increased traffic control, and increased fire damage potential.

As with other new construction, structures built as infill may clash architecturally with older, existing buildings.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gentrification</span> Urban socioeconomic process

Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has been used to describe a wide array of phenomena, usually in a pejorative connotation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smart growth</span> Urban planning philosophy

Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl. It also advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a range of housing choices. The term "smart growth" is particularly used in North America. In Europe and particularly the UK, the terms "compact city", "urban densification" or "urban intensification" have often been used to describe similar concepts, which have influenced government planning policies in the UK, the Netherlands and several other European countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urban renewal</span> Land redevelopment in cities

Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighted areas in inner cities to clear out slums and create opportunities for higher class housing, businesses, and other developments. In the United States the term technically refers only to a federal program in the middle-to-late 20th Century, but colloquially is sometimes used to refer to any large-scale change in urban development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tax increment financing</span> Public financing method

Tax increment financing (TIF) is a public financing method that is used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure, and other community-improvement projects in many countries, including the United States. The original intent of a TIF program is to stimulate private investment in a blighted area that has been designated to be in need of economic revitalization. Similar or related value capture strategies are used around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redevelopment</span> New construction on a site that has preexisting uses

Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses. It represents a process of land development uses to revitalize the physical, economic and social fabric of urban space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shrinking city</span> Dense cities that have experienced notable population loss

Shrinking cities or urban depopulation are dense cities that have experienced a notable population loss. Emigration is a common reason for city shrinkage. Since the infrastructure of such cities was built to support a larger population, its maintenance can become a serious concern. A related phenomenon is counterurbanization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barclay, Baltimore</span> Neighborhood of Baltimore in Maryland, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land recycling</span> Reuse of abandoned buildings or sites

Land recycling is the reuse of abandoned, vacant, or underused properties for redevelopment or repurposing.

The Chicago 21 Plan was a comprehensive development plan released in 1973 intended to revitalize the areas surrounding the Chicago Loop, Chicago's central business district. The 125-page document, subtitled "A Plan for the Central Area Communities" was published by the Chicago 21 Corporation, which was made up of members of the Chicago Central Area Committee (CCAC), founded by some of Chicago's most influential business and civic leaders.

Gentrification is the controversial process of affluent people moving into a historically low-income neighborhood. It is often criticized because the current residents have limited options to buy or rent equivalent housing in alternative areas at the same price. If they stay, prices for products, services, and taxes rise and existing social networks are disturbed. Gentrification is the opposite of white flight—when residents voluntarily move away as a neighborhood declines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harbor Point (Stamford)</span> Neighborhood in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States

Harbor Point is a redevelopment located in the South End of Stamford, Connecticut, United States, in southwestern Fairfield County. Harbor Point is a transit-oriented, mixed-use development near the Stamford Transportation Center on Long Island Sound, which includes approximately 2,750 new housing units as of January 2021, with plans for 4,000 total units. The development also includes office buildings, restaurants, parks, and a boardwalk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gentrification of Atlanta</span> Gentrification of Atlantas inner-city neighborhoods

Gentrification of Atlanta's inner-city neighborhoods began in the 1970s, and it has continued, at varying levels of intensity, into the present. Many factors have contributed to the city's gentrification. A major increase in gentrification that occurred in the last years of the 20th century has been attributed to the 1996 Summer Olympics. However, during the 2000s, Atlanta underwent a profound transformation demographically, physically, and culturally. Suburbanization, rising prices, a booming economy, and new migrants decreased the city’s black percentage from a high of 67% in 1990 to 54% in 2010. From 2000 to 2010, Atlanta gained 22,763 white residents, 5,142 Asian residents, and 3,095 Hispanic residents, while the city’s black population decreased by 31,678. Much of the city’s demographic change during the decade was driven by young, college-educated professionals: from 2000 to 2009, the three-mile radius surrounding Downtown Atlanta gained 9,722 residents aged 25 to 34 holding at least a four-year degree, an increase of 61%. Between the mid-1990s and 2010, stimulated by funding from the HOPE VI program, Atlanta demolished nearly all of its public housing, a total of 17,000 units and about 10% of all housing units in the city. In 2005, the $2.8 billion BeltLine project was adopted, with the stated goals of converting a disused 22-mile freight railroad loop that surrounds the central city into an art-filled multi-use trail and increasing the city’s park space by 40%. Lastly, Atlanta’s cultural offerings expanded during the 2000s: the High Museum of Art doubled in size; the Alliance Theatre won a Tony Award; and numerous art galleries were established on the once-industrial Westside.

Gentrification, the process of altering the demographic composition of a neighborhood usually by decreasing the percentage of low-income minority residents and increasing the percentage of typically white, higher-income residents, has been an issue between the residents of minority neighborhoods in Chicago who believe the influx of new residents destabilizes their communities, and the gentrifiers who see it as a process that economically improves a neighborhood. Researchers have debated the significance of its effects on the neighborhoods and whether or not it leads to the displacement of residents. There are some researchers who claim that the loss of affordable housing mainly impacts the poorer minority residents and causes them to have to move out of their neighborhoods which destabilizes their cultural communities. However, critics say that since gentrification often excludes highly black neighborhoods, those residents are prevented from benefiting from any of the positive effects such as redevelopment and neighborhood investment. Factors associated with and used to measure gentrification in Chicago are changes in the number of residents with bachelor's degrees, median household income, racial composition, visual observations, and the presence of coffee shops. Historically, the emergence of urban black and Latino neighborhoods in Chicago during the 1950s through the 1970s were made possible because of the waves of white residents moving out into more suburban neighborhoods. There have been phases of gentrification in Chicago of various neighborhoods, some of which were in 1990s and in 2007–2009. Gentrification debates in Chicago have been mostly focused around the gentrification of Chicago's historically Latino or black neighborhoods. Generally, these neighborhoods are located near the central urban downtown areas and along the east side of the city.

Community displacement is the movement of a population out of a neighborhood as formal or informal redevelopment occurs. It may be a result of gentrification, the informal redevelopment that occurs when new, and typically richer people, move into a neighborhood. It is the result of urban redevelopment of a residential neighborhood to non-residential uses including retail, education, healthcare, and transportation. It is often criticized because the current residents have limited options to buy or rent equivalent housing in alternative areas at the same price. If they stay, prices for products, services, and taxes in the local area rise and existing social networks are disturbed.

Environmental, ecological or green gentrification is a process in which cleaning up pollution or providing green amenities increases local property values and attracts wealthier residents to a previously polluted or disenfranchised neighbourhood. Green amenities include green spaces, parks, green roofs, gardens and green and energy efficient building materials. These initiatives can heal many environmental ills from industrialization and beautify urban landscapes. Additionally, greening is imperative for reaching a sustainable future. However, if accompanied by gentrification, these initiatives can have an ambiguous social impact. For example, if the low income households are displaced or forced to pay higher housing costs. First coined by Sieg et al. (2004), environmental gentrification is a relatively new concept, although it can be considered as a new hybrid of the older and wider topics of gentrification and environmental justice. Social implications of greening projects specifically with regards to housing affordability and displacement of vulnerable citizens. Greening in cities can be both healthy and just.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gentrification of Mexico City</span>

Mexico City has massively been expanding its urban fabric and population density, becoming the fifth largest city in the world. A combination of neoliberal policies, complex geographic location, socio-economic disparities and inefficient strategies, have influenced the process of gentrification in the city. The combination of numerous megaprojects and inefficient city-planning strategies have led to dysfunctions in circulation, community allocation and equal access to resources. In consequence, middle and low-income communities have been directly or indirectly alienated and challenged to adapt to a complex and evolving urban environment.

Leapfrog development occurs when developers skip over land to obtain cheaper land further away from cities, thus, leaving huge areas empty between the city and the new development. It can be seen when it comes to the development or urbanization of more rural areas.

Gentrification in the United States is commonly associated with an influx of higher-income movers into historically divested neighborhoods with existing, working-class residents, often resulting in increases in property prices and investment into new developments. Displacement and gentrification are also linked, with consequences of gentrification including displacement of pre-existing residents and cultural erasure of the historic community. In the United States, discussions surrounding gentrification require critical analysis of race and other demographic data in examining the inequalities and disparities between existing residents, the community, new buyers, and developers caused by gentrification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherry (Charlotte neighborhood)</span> Neighborhood in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, United States

Cherry is a historical African-American neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina. Adjacent to Uptown Charlotte, it is bounded within Little Sugar Creek, Kenilworth Avenue, John Belk Freeway, East 4th Street, Queens Road, and Henley Place.

Climate gentrification is a subset of climate migration, in which certain lower-socioeconomic communities are displaced in place of housing for more wealthy communities. Areas affected by this phenomenon are typically coastal cities, islands, and other vulnerable areas that are susceptible to rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and other climate-related disasters.

References

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  2. ↑ Brooks, Nancy; Donaghy, Kieran; Knaap, Gerrit-Jan (2011). "Introduction". In Brooks, Nancy; Donaghy, Kieran; Knaap, Gerrit-Jan (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Urban Economics and Planning. New York: Oxford University Press. p.  7. ISBN   978-0-19-538062-0.
  3. ↑ McConnell, Virginia; Wiley, Keith (2011). "Part IV: Urban Land-Use and Transportation Policy, Chapter 21: Infill Development: Perspectives and Evidence from Economics and Planning". In Brooks, Nancy; Donaghy, Kieran; Knaap, Gerrit-Jan (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Urban Economics and Planning. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 473–502. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195380620.013.0022. ISBN   978-0-19-538062-0.
  4. 1 2 Houck, Michael C. (2010). "Chapter 5: In livable cities is preservation of the wild: the politics of providing for nature in cities". In Douglas, Ian; et al. (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology. Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England: Routledge. pp. 48–62. ISBN   978-0-415-49813-5. Note: The odd grammar of the title is based on a quotation from Henry David Thoreau.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Powell, John (January 1999). "Race, poverty, and urban sprawl: Access to opportunities through regional strategies". Forum for Social Economics. 28 (2): 1–20. doi:10.1007/BF02833980. ISSN   0736-0932. S2CID   153902483.
  6. ↑ Dunphy, Robert (2005). "Smart Transportation and Land Use: the New American Dream". Smart Growth and Transportation: Issues and Lessons Learned. Conference proceedings, Transportation Research Board, volume 32). Washington, D.C.: Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. p.  126.
  7. ↑ McConnell, Virginia; Wiley, Keith (12 January 2012). "Infill Development: Perspectives and Evidence from Economics and Planning". In Brooks, Nancy; Donaghy, Kieran; Knaap, Gerrit-Jan (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Urban Economics and Planning. OUP USA. p. 474. ISBN   978-0-19-538062-0.
  8. ↑ "Infill Philadelphia". Community Design Collaborative. Archived from the original on 15 July 2007. Retrieved 13 November 2007.
  9. ↑ The Southeast Tennessee Green Infrastructure Handbook (PDF). Chattanooga, Tennessee: Southeast Tennessee Development District. 2011. p. 13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 March 2012.
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  11. 1 2 3 4 Moskowitz, Peter (2017). How To Kill A City. PublicAffairs. ISBN   9781568587615.
  12. 1 2 A documentary by Kelly Anderson and Allison Lirish Dean ; My Brooklyn LLC. ; director, Kelly Anderson ; producers, Allison Lirish Dean and Kelly Anderson. My Brooklyn. [New York] :New Day Films, 2012.
  13. 1 2 3 Williams, M. (2013). Listening To Detroit: Perspectives on Gentrification in the Motor City [Bachelors of Arts with Honors in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies ]. University of Michigan
  14. ↑ "Background: Gentrification and Displacement". sites.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  15. 1 2 Porter, Michael (May–June 1995). "The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City". Harvard Business Review: 55–72.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 Farris, J. T. (2001). "The barriers to using urban infill development to achieve smart growth". Housing Policy Debate. 12 (1): 1–30. doi:10.1080/10511482.2001.9521395. S2CID   154805986.
  17. ↑ Greenberg, M; Lewis, M. J. (2000). "Brownfields Redevelopment, Preferences and Public Involvement: A Case Study of an Ethnically Mixed Neighbourhood". Urban Studies. 37 (13): 2501–2514. doi:10.1080/00420980020080661. S2CID   154837433.
  18. ↑ Freilich, Robert H.; Sitkowski, Robert J.; Mennillo, Seth D. (2010). From Sprawl to Sustainability: Smart Growth, New Urbanism, Green Development, and Renewable Energy (revised ed.). Chicago: American Bar Association. p.  269. ISBN   978-1-60442-812-4.
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