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The link between public health and the built environment is becoming increasingly apparent, as the land use patterns of the last half century are manifested in negative health outcomes.  Obesity and other chronic diseases are increasingly being linked to how communities are designed and built.  As new developments are planned, and municipalities consider how they want to grow in the future, it is important that planning efforts incorporate consideration of public health issues. 

1)    Strengthen coordination between health and planning boards/agencies
Advocates, officials, and individuals have been increasingly recognizing the connection between the built environment and public health concerns such as obesity and chronic disease, as well as problems related to pedestrian and bicycle safety, water quality, air quality, and social isolation and even depression.
To create safe and healthy communities, people must partner across agencies and among sectors.  These increased partnerships will together ensure that communities are designed in ways that improve health outcomes for all their residents. 

1.a    Boards of Health should adopt resolutions designed to improve cooperation between local health boards and planning departments.

1.b    MAPC should sponsor joint trainings for local public health and planning board members on a sub-regional level

2)    Incorporate public health into municipal master plans.

2.a    The Massachusetts Association of Health Boards and the Department of Public Health should work together to develop goals and guidance for municipalities to incorporate public health into their master plans

3)    Expand programs designed to foster walking and biking to school
Advocates are increasingly calling on parents to get their children to walk or bike to school, a move that could dramatically reduce school traffic jams, slim children's waistlines, and help relieve school budgets of some gas-guzzling buses.  A variety of approaches to this problem are being attempted, from the community-based grassroots approach that the Cambridge Green Streets Initiative is using to encourage residents of the city to walk or bike on the last Friday of the month to more formal school-based programs like the Federally-Funded Safe Routes to Schools programs that are being piloted in selected Massachusetts elementary schools.  While researchers and practitioners are still determining which factors have the largest impacts on the behavior of children (and their parents) the Commonwealth must support further research and the continuation and expansion of existing programs.  

3.a    MAPC should undertake a study of the factors that influence mode choice in getting to schools in areas with existing infrastructure

3.b    The legislature should expand funding for the Safe Routes to Schools program

4)    Adopt and implement Hazard Mitigation Plans
Hazard Mitigation Plans provide communities with an opportunity to assess their vulnerability to multiple types of natural hazards, evaluate the effectiveness of existing mitigation measures and develop a set of prioritized recommendations for additional mitigation measures in the future.  These plans are encouraged by FEMA, and are required for communities to maintain their eligibility for several FEMA grant programs.  

In Massachusetts the Regional Planning Agencies have been contracted by MEMA to produce  Regional Hazard Mitigation Plans for their member communities.  MAPC has been contracted by MEMA to produce plans for 92 communities, and two more were produced by the Old Colony Planning Council.  Once the plans have been approved by FEMA, they must be formally adopted by cities and towns.  Adopted plans are considered effective for five years, after which they must be updated and readopted to maintain eligibility for FEMA grants.

Once communities have adopted their Hazard Mitigation Plans, they should work to implement the priority actions and project recommendations in their plans.  These may include structural projects such as drainage system upgrades, or non-structural measures such as amended flood plain or storm water bylaws.

Many aspects of Hazard Mitigation plans are closely related to other municipal policies and functions.  For maximum effectiveness and implementation, key  recommendations of the plans should be integrated into existing and ongoing local programs.

Incorporate the relevant recommendations of PDM plans into local capital improvement programs, comprehensive plans, and public works programs.

4.a    All municipalities should adopt FEMA-approved Hazard Mitigation Plans and update them every five years

4.b    Municipalities should maintain a local team to oversee implementation of Hazard Mitigation Plans recommendations and prepare updates

4.c    Regional hazard mitigation teams should continue to meet in order to follow up on the regional and inter-community recommendations for hazard mitigation

4.d    Municipalities should incorporate the relevant recommendations of their Hazard Mitigation Plans into comprehensive plans, open space plans, public works programs, and capital improvement programs