As communities look to promote residents’ health through local planning and development, one strategy with the greatest impact may lie in their general plans. As the “constitution” of a community, the general plan underlies all decisions about how land is used.

In the last few years, a new understanding of the built environment’s impact on health has brought the public health community and planners together to develop a variety of innovative land use policies that promote health. Healthy Planning Policies: A Compendium from California General Plans excerpts language from general plans that have gone a step beyond the traditional to build healthier communities, reflecting the growing diversity of strategies for integrating health into planning.