Cities across the country are grappling with a key challenge: how to plan for a thriving future without displacing the residents and businesses that give neighborhoods their character and strength.
With the growing pressures of climate change, economic inequality, and rapid urbanization, local governments are racing to make upgrades that ensure long-term resilience. But too often, those efforts unintentionally accelerate gentrification and displacement.
Future-proofing isn’t just building better infrastructure or smart technology, it’s also about cultivating places where all residents, regardless of income or background, have the power and opportunity to thrive. Here’s how cities can do it right.
Redefining Future-Proofing
Traditionally, future-proofing has focused on physical upgrades: flood-resistant infrastructure, smart grids, energy-efficient buildings. But that’s only half the equation. A truly resilient city also invests in the social and cultural fabric of its neighborhoods.
A city is future-proof when its systems support community health, local economies, social cohesion, and democratic participation. In short: future-proofing must be people-centered.
Understanding the Gentrification Trap
“Urban renewal means negro removal.” – James Baldwin
Gentrification often begins with good intentions: revitalizing underinvested neighborhoods, attracting new businesses, or expanding transit access. Yet without safeguards, these investments can make areas unaffordable for long-term residents.
The result? Rising rents, property taxes, and a cultural shift that pushes out working-class families and communities of color. Cities like San Francisco, Austin, and Washington D.C. offer cautionary tales of how unchecked development can displace the very people revitalization was meant to benefit.
Design With, Not For, the Community
The most powerful way to avoid what James Baldwin described in 1963 is to put community members in the driver’s seat. This means engaging residents not just in public comment periods, but throughout every stage of planning and design.
Strategies that work:
- Convene cross-sector working groups that include residents, small business owners, nonprofits, and developers.
- Use participatory budgeting to let residents decide how public funds should be spent in their neighborhoods.
- Organize collaborative planning or listening sessions to co-create visions for public spaces and infrastructure.
Building with, not just for, residents helps ensure that future improvements reflect community priorities and preserve cultural integrity.
Use Policy to Prevent Displacement
Cities have powerful tools at their disposal to mitigate gentrification. The key is embedding anti-displacement protections into development plans from the outset.
Examples include:
- Community Land Trusts (CLTs): These nonprofit entities buy and steward land to keep housing permanently affordable.
- Zoning for affordability: Inclusionary zoning can require new developments to include a percentage of below-market units.
- Tenant protections: Rent stabilization, right-to-return policies, and legal assistance for renters all help reduce involuntary displacement.
- Public Benefit Agreements: Require developers to commit to specific community benefits (e.g., local hiring, childcare centers) in exchange for project approval.
Rethinking ROI: Return on Inclusion
Future-proofing shouldn’t just be measured in economic terms. It should be measured by how well a city supports belonging, stability, and prosperity for all its residents.
City managers and planners must champion a new kind of ROI, Return on Inclusion. That means investing in local ownership models, culturally anchored businesses, and public spaces that foster intergenerational connection.
Philanthropic leaders and private investors can play a role by prioritizing regenerative initiatives – projects that heal and uplift, rather than extract and displace.
A Call to Act with Intention
We don’t have to choose between growth and justice. With thoughtful planning, inclusive design, and bold leadership, cities can become stronger, more vibrant, and more equitable.
To support practitioners in leading this kind of inclusive, place-based transformation, the Just Communities AP credential offers a rigorous framework grounded in regeneration, accountability, and justice.
Designed for planners, policymakers, architects, and community leaders, this credential equips professionals with the tools and principles needed to center equity in every phase of development.
By earning the JC AP, city leaders signal a commitment to advancing policies and projects that not only future-proof infrastructure but also protect cultural identity, support economic inclusion, and resist displacement.