Searching for stories: health and the built environment

Health can be impacted by the built environment in a number of ways, such as:

– enabling walking and cycling (for example, by building bike lanes or requiring sidewalks in new developments)
– improving access to healthy food choices (e.g. by creating community gardens)
– enabling social connections (e.g. by ensuring that public parks are accessible and safe for all residents)

Has
your community adopted or catalysed a land use change to improve the
health of you and your fellow citizens?  Please tell us about it!  Your
story should:

– Include a clear action by a local or regional
government (such as a zoning or OCP change, a construction project, or
a new by-law).  Actions of a community group in cooperation with the
local government are also of interest.
– Be related to the built environment (e.g. getting kids to walk to school; NOT getting junk food out of vending machines)
– Illustrate best practices (beyond the typical; show us your innovation!)
–
Include, wherever possible, actual health outcomes (e.g. biking use has
increased by x% as a result of the change in the built environment you
made)

We are looking for a diverse set of stories from
communities small and large, in a variety of locations (BC as well as
other Canadian and international communities).