Building Activity-friendly Neighborhoods: Industry Expert Perceptions And Concerns

PURPOSE: Recommendations for building activity-friendly neighborhoods have emerged as important strategies to combat the enormous health and economic burden of physical inactivity. Although the benefits of activity-friendly policies and designs are well substantiated, perceptions of activity-friendly design by those who develop, plan, implement and finance these efforts are not well documented. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to examine the built environment and activity-friendly design perceptions of the professionals who often bear the most significant financial burden and risks in this process: builders, developers, lenders, realtors, and architects, along with engineers, planners, government officials, health professionals, and educators. METHODS: Multiple methods were used to document perceptions of an activity-friendly environment by built environment professionals (N = 161), including key informant interviews (N = 8), focus groups (N = 20), and survey responses (N = 161). Emerging patterns and themes from open-ended responses, transcripts and field notes of interviews and focus groups were categorized according to salient themes. RESULTS: Built environment professionals identified several common characteristics of an activity friendly environment: sense of safety, space for play and recreation, access to retail and residential buildings (mixed use), visible bike and walking paths connecting areas, visual cues to be active (signage), pedestrian friendly streets, access to reflective spaces. Results also revealed concerns about adopting activity friendly designs: increased cost for development, subdivision requirements and zoning regulations, buyer (homeowner) perceptions, buyer preferences for traditional subdivision design, limited financial backing (loans) for new design. CONCLUSIONS: Industry experts emphasize that key features such as safety, spaces for recreation, mixed-use and walking/biking paths for connectivity are important aspects of activity-friendly design. However, increased cost, regulations, market preferences and financial risks have prevented the practical application of these design principles. Addressing these challenges is critical for the widespread adoption and implementation of activity-friendly design. Supported by: The project was supported by Award Number R21ES016532 from the National Institute Of Environmental Health Sciences.