Active Living by Design Active Living by Design provides expertise aimed at increasing routine physical activity and healthy eating through changes in community design. They are currently providing five years of funding and technical assistance to 25 diverse community partnerships across the United States to increase routine physical activity through community design, environmental change and policy strategies. The website contains a comprehensive selection of toolkits, promising practices, white papers and reports.

American Planning Association The American Planning Association has a number of planning resources on its resource website. The APA Research Department is wrapping up work on a project to conduct research and prepare a report and other educational materials on "Planning and Designing the Physically Active Community" under a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The grant is part of a five-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative to encourage changes to the built environment that will promote physical activity as a means of improving the health of Americans. Currently, the Planning and Designing the Physically Active Community Resource List is available and contains book, article, and government document citations.

Related Link: www.planning.org/physicallyactive/

California Center for Physical Activity Local Public Health and the Built Environment (LPHBE) Project LPHBE provides support to county public health agencies through educational teleconferences, mini-grants, and built environment trainings. Previous teleconference topics included the role of planning commissions, GIS mapping of community walkability and pedestrian injury and evaluation of Safe Routes to School interventions, Health Impact Assessments, and inserting health content into community visioning plans.

California Planner's Book of Lists The California Planners Book of Lists includes: A directory of city and county planning agencies, Councils of Government, and Local Agency Formation Commission A list of all the general plans developed by cities and counties in the State of California and the dates that key elements of their plans were last updated. The results of the 2006 Annual Planning Survey. The survey provides the latest information on local planning activities and special issues of statewide concern.

Local Government Commission The Local Government Commission (LGC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization that provides technical assistance, and networking to local elected officials and other dedicated community leaders who are working to create healthy, walkable, and resource-efficient communities. The website contains resources on: community design, economic development, energy, environment, transportation, and waste prevention.

PLANetizen E-Newsletter PLANetizen is a public-interest information exchange for the urban planning and development community. It includes the latest news, jobs, features, and more for urban planning, design, and development. The Planetizen Newswire is delivered electronically every Monday and Thursday, free of charge to subscribers.

PolicyLink PolicyLink is a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity. Two reports by PolicyLink and the California Endowment (The Impact of the Built Environment on Health and Why Place Matters) examine the relationship between socioeconomic and environmental conditions and the health of residents.

Prevention Institute The Prevention Institute website includes tools to support the crafting, implementation, and evaluation of comprehensive prevention initiatives and effective coalitions. It also contains the Environmental Nutrition and Activity Community Tool (ENACT), an online resource of local policies that can improve opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity.

Public Health Law & Policy Planning for Healthy Places (formerly Land Use and Health Program) General Plans and Zoning: A Toolkit on Land Use and Health: This toolkit is designed for public health advocates who are seeking a fundamental, introductory understanding of how land use decisions are made and how advocates can effectively participate in those decisions. Economic Development and Redevelopment: A Toolkit on Land Use and Health: This toolkit is designed for public health advocates who need resources to improve the food access in low-income neighborhoods and are seeking a fundamental, introductory understanding of the economic development and redevelopment tools available, their use, and how to effectively participate in decisions about their use. How to Create and Implement Healthy General Plans: This toolkit provides a progression of steps focused on the general plan. The toolkit details a wide range of strategies, from building relationships and assessing existing conditions to creating and implementing policy language. Model health language is included to provide specific ideas for how to address health concerns through general plan policies.