Using Zoning Regulations to Foster Walkable Communities: Best Practices

The Community Preventive Services Task Force recognizes that combined approaches to the built environment increase physical activity. The combined approaches include interventions to improve transportation systems (such as bicycle infrastructure, pedestrian infrastructure, and street connectivity) with one or more land use or community design approaches (such as mixed use, parks and open space).

A key policy lever that communities can use to create environments that provide both transportation and land use supports for physical activity is through changes to their zoning code to be more activity friendly by design.

While zoning policy is typically under the purview of planning and zoning offices in communities, public health officials can work with the planning and zoning community to amend their long-term zoning and planning strategy to be more activity-friendly and to support more walkable communities.

Researchers at the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago developed the following guides for public health decision makers and practitioners. These documents explain the roles of zoning and land use policy in fostering physical activity in communities and to provide examples and resources to help support local efforts.

The research that informs these products was supported by a grant (CA158035) from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. A contract from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supported the translation of the research findings and the development of these practitioner-oriented products.