Regional collaboration for healthy communities: Integrating public health principles in local and regional planning and decision-making

In March of 2010 the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) received federal funding to address rising rates of obesity through a policy, systems, and environmental approach.  HHSA partnered with SANDAG, the local metropolitan planning organization and regional transportation planning agency, to integrate health into regional and local land use and transportation planning.  SANDAG leveraged their ability to influence local planning practices by providing grant-based incentive programs and technical assistance to local jurisdictions, supporting cities to include health analysis in planning and in developing health-promoting plans and policies. HHSA worked with SANDAG to integrate public health goals, objectives, and project scoring criteria into the long-range regional plan.  As part of this project, SANDAG established the Public Health Stakeholders Group, which served as a forum for input from health stakeholders for the regional plan and other efforts. Additionally, SANDAG worked to institutionalize health impact assessment into regional and local planning, including providing funding to cities to conduct HIAs, conducting internal health impacts and benefits analysis of a regional transportation project, and scoping development of a “health analysis tool” for local jurisdictions in the region. Finally, HHSA partnered with SANDAG and the California Department of Public Health to develop the Integrated Transportation and Health Model (ITHM), the nation’s first quantitative health analysis tool for a regional transportation planning agency. This collaboration models an innovative and in-depth partnership to integrate health into regional and local transportation planning to build safe, healthy, and thriving communities.