Organization launches educational series on racial injustice in land use planning

Housing segregation is interwoven in the fabric of America, with racially driven practices like redlining, exclusionary zoning, and selective lending having long-lasting effects. Here in Washtenaw County, the "community-centered design and strategy lab" FutureRoot is aiming to address some of those effects through a free five-part virtual learning series called “Liberated Land Use." The project is funded by the Inclusive History Project, an initiative of the University of Michigan. 

The turbulence of the current cultural and political moment can lead people to feel uncertain, paralyzed, despairing, or simply compliant. “Liberated Land Use” invites the community into a space of radical imagination. 

“We will move the conversation around land use and housing away from reactivity or even responsiveness to one grounded in shared values and an emerging co-created vision," FutureRoot co-founders Yodit Mesfin Johnson and Jessica A.S. Letaw told Concentrate in a joint email interview.

Using Ann Arbor as a case study, Johnson and Letaw will guide participants in examining the gaps, exclusionary practices, and inequities in current land use policies. The series aims to strengthen relationships, shared learning, and resolve for addressing antiquated policies.

“The Liberated Land Use series seeks to offer real life solutions that get at the insidiousness at its roots by completely reimagining where engagement should begin, including examining governance, outreach, design methodologies, investment, sources of power, and levers of change," Johnson and Letaw said.

Johnson and Letaw have lengthy experience as community activists in Washtenaw County. They've collectively spent nearly 40 years working at the intersections of race, class, culture, and history.  

“This opportunity has validated how essential community-driven planning is," Johnson and Letaw said. "By trusting, listening to, and following the vision of those most impacted, we can create better outcomes while dismantling legacies of exclusion, colonialism, and white supremacy. If land use and city planning have historically served the privileged few, the Liberated Land Use series shows that centering impacted communities isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a smarter, more sustainable path forward."

For more information or to enroll, click here.

Clifton Kirkman II is a freelance journalist, father, sickle cell warrior, and minister at New Macedonia Church in Ypsilanti. He was born in Detroit and has lived in Ypsilanti since 2005.

Photos by Doug Coombe.