Official Project Title:
Transforming Land Use Regulations to Create Livable Communities that Support Physical Activity in Everyday Life
Dr. Deborah Howe and CSC graduate research assistant Mari Radford collaborated with Dr. Jennifer Dill of Portland State University to better understand the process of how innovative land use policies are adopted by local governments, and how these policies lead to the creation of active communities and promote healthy lifestyles. This two year study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation under its Active Living Research Program.
The first phase of the project involved a survey of community best practices. Using zoning that allows mixed land uses as an indicator of innovation, over 300 municipalities with such policies were selected. These municipalities were invited to participate in a webbased survey that examined various aspects of policy adoption and innovation including the impetus for change, the sources of information used and the relationship between the acceptance of mixed use zoning and other innovative actions.
In the second phase, a random web-based survey of municipalities from throughout the US was conducted in order to ascertain the extent of, and potential for, innovative land use policy adoption. The final phase involved field visits which developed detailed case studies of three municipalities that adopted particularly innovative land use policies.