Department of Economic and Community Development

The Department of Economic and Community Development's work focuses on the understanding of multiple interests in land use. We strive to inspire the research, policy, practice, and dialogue of economic and community development through four main areas of study:

• Neighborhood planning and development focuses on tools that increase the effectiveness of community-based planning and development organizations. These tools provide decision-making support and increase the capacity for community management of land, inclusionary zoning, and community land trusts.
• City, Land and the University strives to improve the collective capacity of leaders in cities and other large landowners-universities, religious organizations, medical centers, and private entities- to balance the multiple interests through university-city partnerships in the United States and abroad.
• Fiscal dimensions of planning examine how planning and development decisions affect the fiscal health of a local government and how it constrains planners' proposals for the development of a city. This project seeks to expand the knowledge of the "nuts and bolts" of public finance and how it relates to planning and development activities.
• Urban economic revitalization is a new area of research that includes a studies of the fiscal structure at the state and local level in Massachusetts and the implications for older industrial cities; public spending initiatives in New York City and the effect of school investments on property values; and land leasing in relation to the sale of government lands as a source of public revenues.