Local land use models and zoning policies directly affect many critical factors that shape the health of communities, such as the availability and affordability of housing; the presence of pedestrian areas; the range of transportation options; crime levels; and access to education, employment and other essential goods and services. And that means community planning professionals play a key role in promoting public health through their work.

With funding from the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, two national organizations are examining the challenges communities face and encouraging planners to advance health equity through use of promising practices and policies.

Include health and equity in comprehensive plans

the American Planning Association (APA) in 2015 created the Global Plan Standards for Sustainable Places, a best practice guide to help local planners systematically incorporate sustainability principles, including health and equity, into their local plans. global. With 40,000 professional members in 47 chapters across the United States, the APA advances community planning as an art and science, addressing physical, economic and social factors at the local, regional, state and national levels. .

Comprehensive plans, commonly referred to as mock-up plans, serve as basic policy documents for community planners that guide long-term decisions about the built environment, such as buildings, parks, open spaces, and streets, on a period of 20 to 30 years. horizon. In 2018, recognizing the low adoption of standards, the APA partnered with the Health Impact Project to seek ways to boost adoption by:

• Identify local champions who would apply the standards to developing the overall plan for their jurisdiction, and then promote them to peer planning bodies.
• Develop a practice technical assistance manual to make the standards easy to understand and apply as local authorities create their own plans.

As part of this work, the APA supported jurisdictional planning agencies in Pinellas County, Florida; Culver City, California; and Fort Collins, Colorado, using the standards to guide ongoing plan development work. Feedback from these communities guided the content of the technical assistance manual, which includes model language related to health and equity to be included in compensation plans.

APA continues to disseminate the manual to planners and other stakeholders. Ppublic health professionals have also promoted the document as a practical resource to encourage increased physical activity through pill plans. This can be done by proposing actions to add community features such as cycle paths and walking trails.

While compensation plans take a broad view of long-term planning, local governments can use effective zoning laws and general planning standards to influence the elements of the built environment that promote well-being. Effective rules and guidelines for land use, building location, density, architectural and landscape design, parking, and street maintenance can all make a difference.

In 2020, the Urban Institute led a national study with support from the Health Impact Project to identify changes to the built environment that small and medium-sized towns – with populations of less than 250,000 – could make to promote health and equity. Two neighborhood and community design interventions have shown promise: Design principles of complete streets and a complete reform of the zoning code.

The principles of complete streets aim to ensure safe and comfortable streets as a political objective and in design practice. Elements vary depending on the needs and context of the community, but often include sidewalks, bike paths, dedicated bus lanes, accessible transit stops, and frequent and safe crossing possibilities. And putting these principles into practice benefits community health. For example, jurisdictions could see fewer injuries and deaths if they reduced the number of car crashes, rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses if they reduce vehicle emissions, and improve access to water. physical activity if they increase the possibilities of walking and cycling. Local governments can achieve such results by engaging with residents to identify specific needs and prioritizing neighborhoods where safe driving, walking and cycling are difficult.

Second, the Urban Institute has found that comprehensive zoning code reform can be a useful tool, allowing local governments to review and rewrite zoning bylaws to ensure that new development promotes health and welfare. equity. These codes are a set of regulations that can encourage healthy development patterns and limit land uses that have negative impacts on community health. They can promote access to healthy food, for example, by allowing the raising of crops and livestock in urban or residential areas or reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy foods by regulating the distance between catering establishments. fast and schools.

However, the zoning also caused damage. Exclusionary zoning rules have resulted in residential segregation, which can limit how some low-income communities and communities of color access jobs, high-quality schools, affordable housing, and other resources. Additionally, zoning laws have sometimes exposed these same communities to higher levels of air and water pollution than other populations.

In many jurisdictions, zoning codes have not been updated in decades, and making changes on a case-by-case basis leaves room for inconsistencies in how regulations are enforced, which can lead to a disproportionate impact. on some communities. The Urban Institute has determined that a comprehensive reform of the zoning code, in conjunction with a comprehensive update of the plan, can lead to better outcomes that reflect the political goals of a local government.

These projects highlight promising practices and policies that can advance health and equity outcomes through community planning and land use strategies. For these approaches to work, the context of a region’s history and needs is essential. By engaging with community partners and residents, planners can ensure that neighborhoods across the United States are designed to be safe and healthy for everyone.

Mimi Narayan is an officer and Ruth Lindberg is the director of the health impact project of The Pew Charitable Trusts.