Officials in Oakland, CA are pioneering a new method of measuring the health impact of development, going beyond EIRs to get a more fully-fleshed assessment.
Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) are more common in other countries, but are gaining ground in the U.S. The San Francisco Department of Public Health has spurred their use here, and is behind the Oakland study.
"More a combination of processes and methods than a simple tool, Health Impact Assessment (HIA) measures potential health effects that a project or policy-such as a housing development or traffic ordinance-might have on a population."
Private developers are even getting on board, seeing the healthiness of a building as a marketing factor.
"'If there's a perception that features can lead to health benefits, I think it will have a demand by occupiers,' says Scott Muldavin, executive director of Bay Area–based Green Building Finance Consortium."
Read the full story: Built to heal
Making Healthy Places
The editors of the book "Making Healthy Places," recently published in a second edition by Island Press, discuss the intersections of public health and planning, including key concepts such as green gentrification, health impact assessments, and AI.
Healthy by Design: On the Growth of Health Impact Assessments
Joe Gose examines the growing use of health impact assessments to guide decision-making through a case study from the La Alma/Lincoln Park neighborhood near downtown Denver.
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Jason Corburn issues an indictment of the "community malpractice" by policy-makers that's led to America's glaring health inequalities, and argues that 2013 must be the year that planning works towards improving the living conditions of the poor.
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority