ULI received a major, three-year grant from The JPB Foundation to support work promoting the creation of healthy and sustainable communities and reducing built environment barriers to healthy behaviors. ULI will catalyze the power of our member networks and partnerships around a vision of a sustainable, connected and resilient future for all people. The work will be delivered through a variety of activities, including Advisory Services panels, workshops, case studies, and research reports.

The JPB-funded program will help communities expand access to quality public parks, invest in more equitable and sustainable infrastructure, and pursue more green and resilient land use and development strategies.  ULI will work with communities with varied geographies, socioeconomic profiles, and vulnerabilities to climate change.

The centerpiece of the work will focus on promoting the 10-Minute Walk, a public education campaign launched by The Trust for Public Land (TPL) to promote the bold idea that every city resident should live or work within ten minutes of a high quality park or open space. ULI is partnering with TPL and the National Recreation and Park Association on the campaign, and will be working to create a network of “park champions” among the ULI membership.

Parks have numerous proven public health, environmental, and civic benefits.  Civic investment in parks, infrastructure, and resilience—even those made with the explicit goal of benefiting poor and vulnerable people—can have the unintended consequence of raising property values, thereby decreasing access to these benefits for low-income individuals. Through research and member engagement, ULI will help advance understanding of park and infrastructure investment strategies that reduce displacement, enhance neighborhood stabilization, and provide benefits to low-income communities.

Read Urban Land coverage of the launch of the 10-Minute Walk Campaign.