Comp Plan Community Design — Wisconsin Health Atlas

Why should we plan for active community design

Planning for health involves more than providing healthy food and places to be active. The whole design of the community should make walking, biking, and taking transit convenient options. Compact, mixed-use development is the most effective way to do this.^1-3 Buildings should be close together or clustered. Homes and businesses should be in the same area instead of separate. That way, daily activities like grocery shopping and going to work are only a walk or bike ride away from home.

In addition, planners can make sure that paths and streets form a grid with many connections. This provides many options for walkers and bicyclists. It allows them to avoid major roadways. Street patterns like this encourage people to walk and bike where they need to go.^2,4 When we combine mixed land use, compact development, and grid street patterns, we can encourage everyday physical activity.⁴

best practices for urban & Suburban Comprehensive Plans

Click the plus sign (+) to see more information about that best practice.

+ Support walkable, mixed-use development

Recommend actions that make mixed-use development attractive to pursue. Examples include:
- Mixed-use zoning
- Incentives such as density bonuses and location-efficient mortgages
- Collaboration with transportation agencies

+ Support connected street networks in mixed-use areas that are pedestrian-friendly

Sets policy goals for well-connected street networks built to a human scale with one or more of the following features:
- Appropriate block lengths that promote safe walking
- Principal functional building entries on front façades that face a public space, such as a street, park, or plaza
- Building entries at frequent intervals along streets and sidewalks
- Ground-floor retail in nonresidential and mixed-use projects
- Clear glass façades for ground-level retail, service, or trade uses
- Limited blank walls along building façades
- Ground-level retail, service, and trade windows visible and unshuttered at night
- Covenants, conditions, and restrictions, or other deed restrictions, to ensure the maintenance of visible/unshuttered windows along ground-level retail, service, or trade uses in perpetuity
- Elevated finished floors for ground-floor residential units
- Minimized exposure to parking lots
- Minimized exposure to active driveways
- Wider sidewalks in mixed-use areas
- Elimination or reduction of building setbacks to create a sense of enclosure for pedestrians
- Active uses at ground floor
- Building-height to street-width ratio that maintains a walkable streetscape
- Buildings oriented to face the street or civic spaces

+ Set a goal or objective to promote compact development to promote livability, walkability, and transportation efficiency

Identify at least one strategy for achieving this goal. Examples include:
- Increasing density for mixed-use development where infrastructure is in place
- Transfer of development rights with designated receiving areas

+ Set a goal or objective to promote transit-oriented design

Identify appropriate locations and standards for transit-oriented design in collaboration with the DOT and/or provide incentives such as density bonuses for development in these locations.

+ Support Traditional Neighborhood Development, or village-style development

Identify ideal locations, setting standards for TND or village-style development and/or provide incentives such as density bonuses for development in these locations.

+ Support infill and redevelopment of greyfields in areas already served by public infrastructure

Set specific goals for infill and redevelopment of greyfields. Examples include:
- Inventorying targeted areas
- Providing incentives for their development or redevelopment

+ Set a goal or objective to repurpose, adapt, and reuse older buildings rather than demolishing them and/or constructing on greenfields

Identify targeted areas for these efforts.

+ Support connectivity between developments

Require connectivity between residential and neighborhood-style commercial development.

Set specific policies, goals, and/or standards for permitting accessory dwelling units in appropriate locations.

+ Set a goal or objective to promote “third places” and public spaces.

Examples of “third places” include:
- Walkable main streets
- Coffee houses
- Plazas
- Promenades
- Play fountains
- Outdoor cafes
- Pubs
- Bookstores
- Other public gathering spots with seating

+ Set a goal or objective to use street trees for shade and to enhance walkability

Create specific goals for street trees, including size, spacing and species.

+ Set a goal to promote natural surveillance techniques that make walking safer, like orienting buildings to face the street and including windows that face the street

Recommend specific guidelines or requirements for the orientation of buildings and placement of windows.

+ Support recognized third-party standards for healthy building design and operations, such as Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED)

Incentivize specific building rating systems that promote healthy building measures such as clean indoor air, active occupants, daylighting, and healthy food options.

+ Support recognized third-party standards for sustainable, healthy mixed-use communities such as STAR Communities or LEED for Neighborhood Development

Incentivize specific community rating systems that promote healthy eating and active living such as walkability, bicycle facilities, connectivity, access to outdoor recreation, social cohesion, safety, healthy food access, and indoor air quality.

Traditional neighborhood developments provide a range of housing types, walkable and connected streets, and amenities like stores and schools. Photo: Hercules, CA. Credit: Eric Fischer.

Accessory dwelling units can help create affordable housing and build density. Photo: Alberta, Portland, OR. Credit: Christy Cassano-Meyer, found on accessorydwellings.org.

“Third places” like plazas and coffee shops provide space for the community to come together. Photo: The Terrace, Madison, WI. Credit: Richard Hurd.

Best Practices for Rural Comprehensive Plans