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Planning Information Sheet Integrating Health into Comprehensive Planning Environment and Housing:Environmental and Providing a variety of activities and a range of housing issues include a broad range of topics transportation options to increase choices for such as indoor and outdoor housing quality individual travelers is important for all residents, (building materials, crowding,location of but particularly for those groups that are transit housing,and presence of toxics),contaminated dependent. and/or potentially contaminated sites—to name just a few. Beyond air and water quality, The Role of Comprehensive exposure to other pollutants may have negative planning impacts on health.Exposure to pollutants can be unpredictable,but in some cases can be affected As a policy framework,the comprehensive plan by land-use decisions and building codes. can help to facilitate decisions about health Especially for children, for example,exposure to and the built environment,although it is only lead paint is a significant concern in many older one strategy for improving human health. urban neighborhoods(Evens and Gard 2005). While many plans refer to the importance of Contaminated soils and exposure to hazardous public health,public safety or physical activity, waste,associated with ongoing or previous these general concepts are often used to justify industrial activities,may also be a concern where purposes as opposed to providing a substantive residents are put in close contact with brownfield starting point for discussions about how a sites(Randolph 2004;Bullard 1990). community should look and function. Accessibility:Accessibility planning focuses When integrating health into comprehensive on the degree to which people can easily get planning,there is not a single pattern that to destinations that directly or indirectly are planners and designers must follow.Rather, linked to supporting human health.Planners there are different ways to incorporate these can help increase access by ensuring that policies themes into existing comprehensive plans and and implementation strategies encourage a other typical community-planning efforts.These variety of nearby destinations for residents(e.g., options provide flexibility to communities, employment,health care,grocery stores,etc.), allowing them to make decisions based on and that these destinations can be reached by a community resources and public priorities. variety of transportation modes(e.g.bicycling, walking,automobile,transit).Accessibility Approaches to Integrating Health concerns focus less on automobile users and pp g g more on bicyclists,pedestrians, and transit into Your Comprehensive Plan riders since these people tend to be underserved. Universal design is an aspect of accessibility There are four general approaches to integrating that is particularly focused on specialized health into a community's comprehensive plan. populations. 1. Comprehensive Plan Update A community's comprehensive plan update process is an important opportunity to rethink the organization and focus on the plan.-Through a comprehensive update,communities have the opportunity to fully integrate a concept, such as health,by applying it to each section of the comprehensive plan.Many communities conduct a visioning and/or goal-setting process as part of their plan update.This effort presents an opportunity to discuss the relationship between health and the built environment, and to organize the community around key goals Comprehensive planning can support non-motorized and opportunities to be pursued.In addition, transportation options. This bike path is in Amsterdam,The Netherlands the content contained in each of the plan Design for Health 6 UNIVERSITY OP MINNE1SOTA www.derignforhealth.net