Healthy Community Design
Publications, Presentations and Legislation
Updated April 2008
The materials listed on this web page provide NCSL resources on healthy community design, including magazine articles and other written reports, conference sessions, and policy databases that cover the wide range of policies that can active living.
Publications
Published 2006
This 16 page document explores state legislative activity from 2004 to 2006 with regards to healthy community design and access to healthy foods. Included in the piece is trend-tracking from all state legislatures, as well as a more in-depth examination of legislative activity on issues such as safe routes to school, brownfields cleanup and redevelopment, healthy food procurement, food policy councils, and many other issue areas.
Innovations in State Policy: Safe Routes to School Programs (September 2004)
This case study describes the components of Safe Routes to School programs, states who have passed legislation to create and/or fund Safe Routes to School programs and states who have created programs without legislation. A bill to implement a Safe Routes to School pilot program in Maryland was passed in 2001. The case study discusses the implementation, evaluation and lessons learned from this pilot program.
What's Health Got To Do With It? (June 2004)
This article from the June issue of State Legislatures Magazine discusses how policymakers are looking at mixed use community designs that encourage physical activity and help lower obesity rates.
Physical Activity and Community Design (June/July 2004)
This LegisBrief describes the connection between physical activity and health and actions that states are taking to change the design of their communities to allow people to be physically active during their daily routine.
Policies That Promote Biking and Walking (updated December 2003)
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This report addresses several legislative concerns by suggesting answers based on statutory surveys and interviews with legislators and public health officials-to the following questions:
- Which policies are most important to encourage walking and biking?
- Which policies are most likely to be adopted?
- Which level of government is most responsible for adopting and implementing policies that encourage walking and biking?
- Which legislative committees need to be involved in policy discussions?
- What are the most appropriate roles of the legislature in adopting policies?
State Legislative Action on Active Living and Access to Healthy Food (August 2005)
Tennessee Select Committee on Children and Youth
This presentation describes policy options for changing the physical environment to create one that is more conducive to physical activity and accessing healthy, affordable food.
Speaker: Leslie Robbins, National Conference of State Legislatures
Active Living Legislation (April 2005)
South Carolina Coalition for the Promotion of Physical Activity
This presentation describes how land use can affect physical activity rates, what current land use patterns look like as well as what an environment that supports activity living can look like. Examples of state policies that support an active living environment are included.
Speaker: Leslie Robbins, National Conference of State Legislatures
Obesity Prevention Policy (April 2005)
South Carolina Coalition for the Promotion of Physical Activity
This presentation reviews data on obesity and includes policies on obesity task forces and studies as well as policies related to physical education.
Speaker: Leslie Robbins, National Conference of State Legislatures
Policy and the Design of Active Living Communities (April 2004)
American Planning Association’s 2004 National Planning Conference, Washington, D.C.
Active living communities foster daily, routine physical activity for residents of all ages and abilities because they are designed on a human scale--a scale for social interactions, a mix of experiences close to home and convenient transit options. This session provided participants a chance to observe and engage in a moderated discussion that examined the role that state and local policies play in fostering active living designs and development. The practical application of such policies when designing communities and projects was also explored.
Speakers: Nadejda Mishkovsky, International City/County Management Association
Larry Morandi, National Conference of State Legislatures
Tracey Westfield, National Governors Association Center for Best Practices
The national Active Living Leadership web page offers additional resources on physical activity, smart growth and healthy community design.
NCSL Legislative Databases
A number of NCSL resources exist to enable you to research bills and laws that contribute to access to healthy food. There are four databases on the NCSL web site. Bills can be downloaded from NCSL’s State Legislatures Internet Links at http://www.ncsl.org/public/leglinks.cfm.
The Healthy Community Design Legislation Database contains summaries of bills from the current legislative session as well as those from the 2003-2004 legislative sessions. The bills are focused on strategies that increase access to healthy food and opportunities for including physical activity into one's daily routine. Specifically, bills can be searched by the following topics: agriculture, bike/pedestrian, coalition/council, direct marketing, farm-to-school, farmers' market, land use/smart growth, nutrition, obesity, obesity-childhood, physical activity, supermarket and transportation. The database can be searched by state and topic. In addition to the bill number and summary, each entry includes dates of introduction and last action, sponsor and bill status.
Growth Management Legislation database contains summaries of bills being considered during the current session that focus on providing incentives for, or removing obstacles to more effective growth management. The emphasis is on strategies that attempt to balance economic development with protection of natural resources, the environment and public health. Topics include brownfields redevelopment, conservation easements, mixed use development, smart growth and tax credits, among others. The database can be searched by state and topic. In addition to the bill number and summary, each entry includes dates of introduction and last action, sponsor and bill status.
NCSL's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration database contains information on bicycle and pedstrian safety legislation, as well as broader transportation-related safety legislation.
The database on rural legislation includes legislation on rural economic development, education, health, infrastructure, fiscal issues, land use, housing, safety and criminal justice, and agriculture as it relates to rural development. It also includes legislation related to state rural agencies and institutions. The database may be searched based on bill number, status, or sponsor; as well as keyword, state or topic. The database is updated quarterly; it began in February 2003. The entries in the database are compiled from the results of a search for bills that include the term "rural;" it may not include every bill with particular effects on rural areas. NCSL also has legislation and statute databases on agricultural issues (including biotechnology, agricultural terrorism, farmland protection and organic food).
The Environmental Health Legislation database includes state legislation on topics such as mercury, lead poisoning, pesticides and indoor air quality. The database is updated monthly and all entries include brief summaries of current legislation as well as status and bill number.
Non-NCSL Legislative Databases
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity recently posted a state legislative information database. This database can be searched by topic or subtopic. Some examples of topics include food and beverages, schools, transportation and worksites, and some examples of subtopics include bicycles, seniors, health insurance and parks. The database contains information from 2001 and is updated quarterly. By mid-year 2004, the physical activity arm of this database will include bills on transportation, smart growth, education and environmental health as they pertain to active living. |
