Minjee Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Urban Planning department at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Her research is situated at the intersection of real estate development and urban planning. She writes about land use regulation, large-scale real estate developments, exactions, negotiated developments, and urban public finance. Her goal as a planning scholar is to identify the ways in which planners and policymakers can foster equitable real estate developments.
Her solo-authored works have appeared in high impact planning journals such as the Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Literature, and Urban Studies. She has been recognized both nationally and internationally as an emerging expert in US land use regulation and zoning. She served as the U.S. expert on Lincoln Institute’s joint effort with the OECD to promote land-based public finance. She also has been engendering a close working relationship with real estate industry professionals. She served as the chair of the DEI committee for ULI North Florida and is the sole author of the report, Creating Diverse and Inclusive Communities, published by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing. Equipped with an understanding of the economics, processes, and politics of real estate development, she sees herself as bridging the real estate and planning fields.
Minjee received a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning and Master’s in City Planning from MIT. During her time in Boston, she worked in the cities of Cambridge and Boston’s planning departments to obtain hands-on planning experience. She was previously an Assistant Professor at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the Florida State University from 2019 to 2024.
Selected Publications:
Kim, M., Garcia, I., Goetz, E., Hanlon, B., Monkkonen, P., Pendall, R., Pfeiffer, D., Reece, J., & Whittemore, A. (2025). Bring Zoning Back into the Planning Curricula. Journal of the American Planning Association.
Kim, M. (2025). From exchange value to social value of real estate development: A Planner’s perspective. Planning Theory.
Kim, M., & Lee, H. (2024). Upzoning and gentrification: Heterogeneous impacts of neighbourhood-level upzoning in New York City. Urban Studies.
Kim, M., Malizia, E., Nelson, M., Wolf-Powers, L., Ganning, J., & Schrock, G. (2024). Real Estate Development and Economic Development Planning Education: Pragmatic Turn or Trojan Horse? Journal of Planning Education and Research.
Kim, M., & Lee, H. (2023). Can U.S. Planned Communities Become Diverse? The case of industry-leading master-planned communities in five metro areas. Journal of Urban Affairs.
Kim, M. (2023). The Case for Mass Upzoning. Housing Policy Debate.
Kim, M. (2023). Infrastructure investments and land value capture: Variations and uncertainties at the frontiers of urban expansion. Town Planning Review.
Kim, M. (2023). Taking Stock of What We Know About Large-Scale Urban Development Projects: A Review of Existing Theoretical Frameworks and Case Studies. Journal of Planning Literature.
Kim, M., & Chapin, T. (2022). Who Benefits from Enterprise Zones? Equity implications gleaned from policy design and implementation regulations. Cities.
Kim, M., & Zhou, T. (2021). Does Restricting the Entry of Formula Businesses Help Mom-and-pop Stores? The case of American towns with unique community character. Economic Development Quarterly.
Kim, M. (2021). How Do Tax-based Revitalization Policies Affect Urban Property Development? Evidence from Bronzeville, Chicago. Urban Studies.
Kim, M. (2020). Negotiation or Schedule-based? Examining the strengths and weaknesses of the public benefit exaction strategies of Boston and Seattle. Journal of the American Planning Association.
Kim, M. (2020). Upzoning and Value Capture: How U.S. local governments use land use regulation power to create and capture value from real estate developments. Land Use Policy.
