Including Health in Comprehensive Plans

Dakota County Background and Instructions

11-29-16

Background

In 2016, the Dakota County Public Health and Planning Departments prepared planning documents to use and share with others interested in partnering with city and county planners to include health and equity in comprehensive plans.

The goal: provide data and best practices for planners to use in comp plans in order to address and support health and equity including active living, healthy eating (healthy food access, healthy food system), and reduction of tobacco use and exposure. These are the areas of focus of the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP), funded by the MN Department of Health to reduce chronic disease.

The challenge:deciding what health and equity data to share and how to package it so it is useful and relevant to comp planning.

The documents include the following:

  • Health and Equity Indicators chart (part 1 of 2)
  • Health and Equity Data chart (part 2 of 2)
  • Healthy Comp Plan handouts on healthy communities, land use, parks, transportation, and housing.
  • Health data by city

We reviewed available data in the Dakota County Public Health Department and selected indicators that seemed most relevant to SHIP topics of healthy food access, active living, and tobacco use and exposure. Data sources included reports such as County Community Health Profiles, Community Health Assessment, Communities for a Lifetime (aging initiative) as well as MN Departments of Health and Education, MN Student Survey, U.S. Census, American Community Survey, etc.

We created a Health and Equity Indicators chart (part 1 of 2) that includes topical areas (chronic disease, physical activity, nutrition, social determinants of health and equity, and demographic data), data sources (original source in column 3 and local department source in last column) plus level of available data – state, county, local(city or school district).

Following the same outline of topic areas and indicators, we created a Health and Equity Data chart (part 2 of 2) with specific examples of state and Dakota County data that might be useful to planners and easy to cut and paste into documents.

To make it more relevant for planners working on comp plans, five handouts were developed. Common topics in comp plan chapters or elements were chosen: land use, parks, transportation, housing, as well as an overview on healthy communities to be considered for use in vision, mission, goals, etc. Each handout includes these sections:vision, topic (such as land use) and health, topic (such as land use) and equity, supporting data, policies to consider, resources, and contact information. To keep the documents short and easy to read, they do not include source information. To identify the source, refer back to the Health and Equity Indicators chart.

The documents are for planning purposes and include examples of model language and best practices, not Dakota County policies.

In addition we created a one-page city summary of key health data that included local data when available. This was used in discussionson how health relates to comp plans.

How We Used the Handouts

Dakota County Public Health and Planning staff met with city staff (usually from planning, parks, economic development) to review a packet of information and discuss the inclusion of health in comp plans, community engagement, their comp planning process, and resources we could offer. In addition to the comp plan handouts and one-page city data, we included GIS maps of the following indicators by city: food access (location of and distance from grocery stores, households without vehicles), poverty, renters that are cost burdened, unemployment, those without health insurance, people of color, and limited English language. We also included a copy of the MN Food Charter Food Action Planning Guide. It was the major source for policies to consider in the food access section of the comp plan handouts. After the meetings, we followed up on requests for additional information and sent final copies of data and handouts electronically. In addition, our Community Services Director shared copies of the five comp plan planning documents with the County Board of Commissioners as an update and they were posted on our website at

Replication in Other Counties and Cities

  • These are works in progress. Feel free to edit and use the format and language in the handouts for your county and city. You do not need to give credit to Dakota County; however we would appreciate knowing if this information has been useful to you and sharing improvements and learnings so we can all enhance our knowledge and service.
  • Replace Dakota County data, logos and local resource contacts with your ownlocal county or city data, logos and contacts to update the comp plan handouts and city data sheets. To determine sources for and examples of data of interest, refer back to the two charts: Health and Equity Indicators and Health and Equity Data.
  • Use the latest available data. For example, the MN Student Survey data is now available for 2016.

Thank you to all reviewers and contributors in this process!

For more information: Mary Montagne, Health Promotion Supervisor, Dakota County Public Health Department, 651-554-6119,