Health in all policies: Land Use/Planning Sector

Zoning and land use ordinances and policies are critical tools for decision makers interested in making their communities more active living-oriented. In recent years, jurisdictions nationwide have been revisiting their zoning codes to make them more progressive and to incorporate elements with a pedestrian and/or active living orientation. Coded zoning data compiled from an evaluation of zoning codes from all jurisdictions located in the largest 496 counties and 4 consolidated US cities  (covering ~74% of the US population), were used to construct measures of the walkability and active living orientation of the zoning codes. These data were linked with GIS measures of the physical environment, community and individual level characteristics, and, ultimately, linked with adult walking and biking measures from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and with municipal and county-level data from the American Community Survey on public transit use and walking/biking to work. We found that more active living oriented zoning was associated with: (1) more leisure-time adult biking and walking, particularly in larger counties in the U.S., and (2) higher rates of public transit use and, to some extent, walking to work (which had a very low prevalence to begin with). Recommendations for how public health practitioners, advocates, planners, and researchers can work together to create more active living-oriented zoning laws will be discussed.