Support a Health Element for Oakland's General Plan!
Heather Wooten
All –
The Oakland Planning Commission is scheduled to hear a report on a proposal to seek a health element for Oakland's General Plan on July 7th at 6 p.m. in Hearing Room 1 in City Hall at One Frank Ogawa Plaza. This item will be first on the agenda. Anyone interested in seeing Oakland adopt a health element in the General Plan should plan on attending this meeting to express their support.
One of the tools available to create healthier communities is the general plan, the primary land use policy document for California’s communities. As the "constitution" of a community, the general plan underlies all land use decisions. All local government land use policies must rest on the principles and goals of the general plan. Since general plans also take a long-term vision, those with strong health language can powerfully orient government actions for decades. The process of creating a health element in a general plan is an opportunity to engage and educate the community about the state of its health and to invite residents to participate in identifying local health issues that are important to them.
On July 7th at 6 p.m., the Oakland Planning Commission will hear a report on the concept of including a health element in Oakland's General Plan. Such a health element could address a wide range of health-related land use decisions, such as:
- Access to grocery stores and fresh fruits and vegetables
- Safe places to exercise and play
- Clean air and environment
- Limiting an over-concentration of liquor stores and tobacco outlets
- Designing communities to be safer and reduce crime
- Promote economic development to stabilize neighborhoods
- Safe access to public transit and walking and biking paths
- Sustainable development
If you are interested in seeing any of these health issues addressed in Oakland, please come attend the Planning Commission meeting on July 7th to express your support. I plan on attending this meeting and will sharing talking points with those who are interested in attending.
Heather Wooten
Planning for Healthy Places
A project of Public Health Law & Policy
2201 Broadway, Suite 502
Oakland, CA 94612
(510
302-3370 (tel)
(510) 444-8253
(fax)
hwo...@phlpnet.org
Public Health Law & Policy (PHLP) provides legal information on matters relating to public health. We do not give legal advice and we do not represent individual clients. For legal advice or representation, you should consult a lawyer in your state.