Building Healthy Communities: The Role of Urban Planning & Design

Jacob A. Wagner, Ph.D.Department of Architecture, Urban

Planning + DesignUMKC

conference objectives

1. Describe how decreased contact with our natural environment contributes to the current state of children’s health.

2. Identify regional efforts to increase capacity in communities to address environmental and health related challenges.

3. Identify local efforts and resources to enhance knowledge and advocacy for healthy families at the community, school and home levels.

4. Integrate local initiatives into current practice and programs to promote healthy communities, schools and homes.

5. Review options to collectively advance efforts to increase healthy and safe outdoor environments for children.

purpose

• Review key concepts and provide accurate information• Value of nature to promote physical activity and overall

well-being in children and their families. • Participants will learn about the impact that the built

environment has on health and how to encourage families to go outdoors.

• Information on national, regional, and local projects that encourage outdoor activity and better health will be provided.

• How participants can advance efforts to improve the health of children will be promoted.

What is Urban Planning?

• Promotion of health, safety, welfare

• Regulation of land use activity

• Planning, design and development of urban systems:– Built environment, land use

– Transportation and mobility

– Environmental conditions

– Food systems

• Place-based public policies…

What is urban design?

• Design and management of public spaces

• Conservation of existing neighborhoods

• Regulation of height, setbacks, and other physical characteristics of built structures

• Design of spaces between buildings

• Place-making…

basic challenge

• Our success at solving the problems of the industrial city have led to the problems and unintended consequences of the post-industrial, suburban region…

• Cultural biases against urban density create underlying problems with building healthier environments…

• To improve public health we must retrofit existing environments…

• If we have designed everyday nature out of our cities, we can and must design it back in…

basic challenge

To improve public health we must…

– retrofit existing environments,

– create greater efficiency and activity through increased population densities

– re-design our built environment to promote everyday activity and interaction with natural systems…

– encourage non-motorized transportation

current & recent projects

• Neighborhood and Community-based planning

– 27th and Prospect Neighborhood Plan

– Washington Wheatley Neighborhood Plan

– Green Impact Zone Historic Resources survey

– Disaster Recovery Planning, New Orleans

– Lafitte Greenway, New Orleans

• Planning for Urban Agriculture

challenges of existing neighborhoods

Urban Neighborhoods

• Concentrated poverty

• Densities can vary greatly

• Streetcar city– Was walk-able at one time..

• Higher usage/dependency on public transit

• Environmental justice issues– Illegal dumping

– Air quality

– Housing conditions

• Food deserts

Suburban Neighborhoods

• Low density development

• Inability to walk to everyday needs– Schools

– Basic services

• Aging in place, isolation

• Lack of public spaces

• Auto-dependent, high traffic speeds

• Air quality issues

• Increasing poverty

NEIGHBORHOOD CONDITIONS

DANGEROUS

BUILDINGS

VACANT

BUILDINGS

KEY COALITION

1925

KEY COALITION

1950KEY COALITION

2000

• Increase civic engagement and responsibility for shared spaces

• Involve multiple stakeholders with a variety of skills and experiences

• Work to solve immediate challenges – don’t be afraid to get started…

• Seek partnerships, build capacity

opportunities

• Increase contact with our natural environment…

– Multiple scales: house, block, neighborhood, city, region…

– Public spaces, parks, walkways, greenways

• Increase capacity to address environmental and health related challenges

– Collaborative planning processes…

– Rebuild/rethink community economic development to include ecological learning…

opportunities

• encourage outdoor activity and better health

• Public safety is critical

• Safety audits

• Infrastructure and public spaces provide opportunities