Creating Healthy Communities: Planners, Partnerships, Policies, and Projects

Friday, January 27, 2012
Irish Cultural Center
1106 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ

Healthy Lifestyles and the Built Environment

There is a growing recognition that the increase in the number of people with chronic diseases – obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and asthma -- is a product of unhealthy lifestyles.  Poor food choices and sedentary lifestyle are the primary contributors. But there is a general consensus that how our communities are designed and how the design encourages or discourages an active, healthy lifestyle, contributes to the problem.  

FACTOID:  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 33.86% of the U.S. population is obese; 25.2% of the Arizona population is obese.
Major criticisms of how the existing built environment is not providing healthy lifestyle opportunities is the lack of walkability and bikeability; lack of access to parks and recreational facilities; the lack of public transit choices; the lack of the sense of place; the lack of healthy food choices resulting in the creation of “food deserts”; and the lack of incorporating human scale into the design of our communities.  In the past, our neighborhoods have been designed with minimal attention to healthy lifestyle.  Instead our neighborhoods were designed with the primary focus on building auto-dependent communities. 

FACTOID:  In 2008, medical costs associated with obesity were estimated at $147 billion.
Clearly it’s time for a change as to how our communities are planned and built.  It’s critical that communities throughout Arizona focus on a vision for the future that includes providing healthy lifestyle options for all residents.  Planners have a key leadership role to play in the public process to identify the healthy lifestyle community vision; to prepare goals and policies; and to identify implementation strategies once the goals and policies are adopted.  

FACTOID:  Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of death.

Purpose of the Healthy Community Workshop

The purpose of the Healthy Community Workshop is to focus on the future and how planners, in partnership with other professionals, can assume the leadership role in changing how we design and build our communities.  Whether it is a public sector planner who works on the preparation and adoption of policies and regulations that contribute to healthy lifestyle; or a private sector planner who works with communities and developers on the design of new projects, we all have a role to play and a contribution to make to creating healthy communities.   

The workshop will provide you with the necessary tools so that you can design your community to facilitate healthy lifestyle choices.  For example, by:

• Decreasing dependence on the automobile by designing neighborhoods where homes, businesses, schools, churches and parks are located closer to each other so that people can easily walk or bike to these destinations;
• Providing opportunities for people to be physically active and socially engaged as part of their daily routine, thus improving both the physical and mental health of residents;
• Allowing people to age in place and remain all their lives in a community that reflects their changing lifestyles and changing physical capabilities;
• Ensuring access to affordable and healthy food.

We all have a role, and a responsibility, for designing healthy communities and providing healthy lifestyle opportunities for all community residents. 

Healthy Community Workshop Take-Aways

The presenters at the Healthy Community Design Workshop will:

• Identify how planners can partner with other professionals, such as public health professionals, to identify the issues and provide solutions for how you can provide more opportunities for healthy lifestyles in your communities.
• Provide an overview of how you can incorporate healthy lifestyle goals and policies into your community General or Comprehensive Plan.  The City of Avondale General Plan Update will be discussed as an example of how a community has successfully incorporated a focus on a healthy lifestyle into the General Plan. 
• Discuss the Healthy Lifestyle Planning Toolkit and how you can use it to incorporate specific policies into the elements of the General Plan.  A copy of the Toolkit will be provided to all workshop participants.    
• Discuss Health Impact Assessments and how you can incorporate HIAs as a component of future projects.   A brief overview of the preparation process and a local example will be shared with the workshop participants.  In addition, the proposed schedule for HIA training opportunities in 2012 will be discussed.
• Discuss how you can prepare a food policy/active lifestyle plan and how that plan can be used to help formulate strategies for implementing healthy lifestyle community goals.

 

Registration Fees:

APA Arizona Members	$55
Full-time Students and Unemployed Planners (Members)	$25
Non-Members	$65

Price includes lunch.

For More Information Call/Email:
APA Arizona Office
602-866-7188
info@azplanning.org

Agenda

Workshop Presenters

• Cynthia Melde, MS, Nutrition & Activity Manager, Arizona Department of Health Services
• Stacey Bridge-Denzak, Planner I, City of Avondale Planning Department
• Vincent Lopez, Maricopa County Department of Public Health, Public Policy Section
• Serena Unrein, Public Interest Advocate, Arizona Public Interest Research Group (AZPIRG)
• Jennifer L. McCulley, M.S., J.D., Arizona HIA Team
• Dean Brennan, FAICP, Project for Livable Communities; Faculty Associate Arizona State University