This report documents the Centralina Aging in Place Workshop and features the central role of transportation and housing in the work of land use planners and designers. Click here to download the report.
Both issues are an underlying factor when creating livable communities for all ages and often determine decisions about land dedicated for schools, parks, businesses, medical services, retail stores, the arts and civic buildings. In order to keep older residents in their communities, planners need to make sure they can be housed appropriately and affordably and that they can engage in the life of the community—even if they are not driving.
Land use planning and design influence the character of a community and its capacity to make its buildings, services and amenities available to all. Land use planners are the unseen hands that connect the dots, who create space for parks in the heart of a community, link public transportation to arts and culture, office buildings and shopping, and understand that streets and sidewalks should make all that a community has to offer available to older or disabled residents in wheelchairs—and to those who are pushing strollers.
The land use and planning theme could not have been more relevant in the Centralina Region, a booming city and region that has grown very rapidly at times. The Centralina Region’s land use planners, architects, housing advocates, staffs of aging and social services agencies, and others at the workshop welcomed the chance to hear from speakers who had participated in the innovative and promising planning taking place in their own communities. The speakers noted that land use planners and designers lay a major role in shaping a community. The best land use planners are artists, able to respond to the vision for a community that contributes every day to the quality of life of its residents.
This report features the central role of transportation and housing in the work of land use planners and designers. The workshop’s speakers made it clear, however, that many other very important issues come into play in creating livable communities for all ages, including decisions about land dedicated for schools, parks, businesses, medical services, retail stores, the arts and civic buildings. Many land use planners are charged with protection of the environment and economic development. But for keeping older residents in their communities, planners need to make sure they can be housed appropriately and affordably and that they can engage in the life of the community – even if they are not driving.
Key Findings:
- Many land use planners and designers are not fully aware of the consequences of a rapidly increasing aging population on their communities.
- Planners working on making their communities more livable can benefit from the knowledge of those who understand the needs of aging residents.
- Planning for land uses following World War II heavily favored suburban developments that made automobile travel a necessity for almost all the activities of daily life.
- Land use planners and designers play an extremely important role in decisions affecting the accessibility of public transportation and the availability of affordable, appropriate housing in their communities.