Role of Health in San Francisco Bay Area Community Development and Land Use Efforts

A number of organizations are developing new approaches for addressing health disparities through a focus on the built environment, and more generally, on urban and regional development patterns and policies. These approaches span a broad range of activities, including projects to expand access to transportation through community design, efforts to increase the capacity of low-income communities to participate in community development decisions, and plans to include health objectives in long-range city planning policies. For many of these efforts, the integration of public health with land use and community development planning is new, and as a result, one of the most pressing questions for the field relates to understanding and maximizing the role of health in traditionally planning-oriented projects. PolicyLink, a national non-profit research and action institute working to advance social and economic equity, has engaged in a range of research, technical assistance and policy development activities related to land use and health projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. This presentation will highlight the experiences of several Bay Area organizations engaged in addressing public health issues through land use strategies over the past year, probe into the role of health in community development efforts, and discuss promising strategies for creating and implementing “healthy” land use policy changes.