Policy and Legislation for Healthy Places
Policies and laws are, respectively, the articulation of governmental principles and the implementation of those principles; together they are central factors in creating healthier places. Policies and laws are created and implemented at the local, state,
- PDF / 347,850 Bytes
- 16 Pages / 576 x 720 pts Page_size
- 51 Downloads / 196 Views
Introduction A San Francisco planning commissioner questioned why the city planning code required that one new parking space be constructed for every new unit of housing, given that one-third of San Francisco households do not own cars and the city’s official policy is “transit first.” As a decision maker the planning commissioner was able to work with the city planning department to create two new policies to amend this requirement. The first policy unbundled parking in new apartment buildings and condominium developments. Traditionally, a parking space had been included in the price of a housing unit. The new policy separated these two transactions, so that purchasers did not have to buy or rent parking unless it was needed, and the portion of the unit’s purchase price or rental amount that paid for the parking space was separated out as well. As with a sandwich that comes with chips and a soft drink, a buyer might consume these add-ons when they come automatically but might make a healthier choice otherwise. The price of the home did not A.L. Dannenberg et al. (eds.), Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-being, and Sustainability, DOI 10.5822/978-1-61091-036-1_18, © Island Press 2011
271
272
STRATEGIES FOR HEALTHY PLACES: A TOOLBOX
change for those who wanted to buy parking; for others, the elimination of that required expense meant more affordable housing costs. To help people who need a car only for occasional errands or weekend trips, the companion policy to unbundling was ensuring that parking space was allocated for a local, nonprofit car-sharing organization to place cars in these new buildings. With a car available for short-term rentals, condominium residents would not have to pay the high costs of full-time car ownership, and San Francisco would benefit from fewer automobiles. It was deeply satisfying for the commissioner to be able to develop and implement policies that created positive change in her city. Unfortunately, for every health-supporting example of governmental policy and law, there are examples of other policies and laws that have the opposite effect. In Fresno, California, in the heart of the nation’s “salad bowl,” local zoning law prohibits fruit and vegetable stores, grocery stores, meat markets, and supermarkets in areas designated limited neighborhood shopping center districts (LNSCDs). These districts are “intended to serve as planned shopping centers providing for [neighborhood-serving businesses that] fit into the residential pattern of development and create no architectural or traffic conflicts” (“C-L” Limited Neighborhood Shopping Center District, § 12-232 et seq.).
This book has reviewed ways in which the built environment can be improved to promote health. Chapter 17 discussed behaviors individuals can adopt for health. Many of those behavioral changes would be facilitated by changes in the physical environment. Our current built environment often does not support healthy choices. Members of a family may want to walk to the produce market to buy fruit, b
Data Loading...
