Across the commonwealth, city and town planning commissions take on the difficult task of planning for the future. Every five years, they develop or revise their comprehensive plans to anticipate their constituents’ needs, dreams, and innovations for the coming decades. These comprehensive plans forecast land use, infrastructure, transportation, housing, parks and recreation, economic development, and public resources.
Planning commissions develop their comprehensive plans on community health and the well-being of their constituents by prioritizing social determinants of health (SDOH), non-medical factors such as socioeconomic status, education, environment, and access to healthcare that can impact an individual’s overall health. By considering SDOH, the commission and other stakeholders gain a broader understanding of community needs, leading to a more effective and equitable comprehensive plan.
Planning commissions are appointed citizens who work with their municipal planning departments to lead the development of a plan that includes input from a cross-section of residents, businesses, industry leaders, and other state and local agencies like the state health department. It’s important to include projections on locating and supporting schools, transportation, and housing that every day Virginians can access. Planning for decades into the future requires the consideration of lots of data. Still, unfortunately, communities’ health and well-being aren’t thoroughly analyzed because the social determinants of health are not part of the data collection efforts.
According to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS), over 12 million people a year die because they live or work in unhealthy environments. Just like families planning for their future, cities and towns are responsible for ensuring everyone can live in a healthy community with clean air, water, and access to essential services like healthcare. Our leaders need more tools in their planning toolboxes to address environmental health impacts in their communities. Some local leaders may not even realize that SDOH data is something they are allowed to consider in their planning process. Given the vagueness of the current code, some localities might be hesitant to incorporate SDOH into their planning process due to concerns about potentially violating Virginia law.
Thankfully, the General Assembly provided a remedy for this situation with bipartisan support by passing HB 1827, a permissive bill that explicitly gives localities the option to incorporate SDOH data into their comprehensive planning process. This is not a mandate but a significant step forward in addressing community health concerns, especially in rural and low-income communities that bear a disproportionate pollution burden and often lack access to healthcare. The bill is now waiting for Governor Youngkin’s signature.
Since planning commissions already undertake mandated comprehensive planning every five years, this would be an opportunity to dive deeper and address our families’ health risks. Planning commissions can also encourage feedback from vulnerable communities and create a plan for incorporating strategies and programs that could target and improve public services and health outcomes.
Everyone has a fundamental right to live in a clean, healthy community, regardless of where they reside. Let’s put Virginia families and their health first in the comprehensive planning process by encouraging all localities to consider SDOH in their long-term community planning.
Kim Sudderth is a policy analyst with Virginia Interfaith Power & Light.
