Active Living Impact Checklist – A tool for developments in the Australian Capital Territory.

Our vision is a built environment that promotes health, happiness and wellbeing. Planning for a healthy built environment considers the issues related to broader social capital and sense of community to ensure that everyone benefits from a quality urban form.1 However, the Heart Foundation acknowledges that a single checklist cannot be the only option to create a healthy human environment. Due to the complexity of thinking about health and wider implications on the built environment holistically, the checklist will focus on one major aspect of the problem, physical inactivity, with a focus on individual developments.2 As identified in the ACT Active Living Scoping Study strategic action areas, the Active Living impact checklist has been developed to inform the planning phase of development.3 The checklist will support Active Living as a fundamental design principle for new developments. This checklist is informed by the Heart Foundation’s healthy planning design objectives and the previous work undertaken by the enHealth Council, Department of Health and Ageing,4 the Premier’s Council for Active Living NSW,5,6 the Australian Local Government Association, the Planning Institute of Australia and the Heart Foundation.7,8 ACT-specific policy content has been included through the work of a local expert working group. The national document Healthy Spaces and Places9 provides the framework for the Active Living impact checklist. The checklist is an easy-to-use guide to show how a proposed development can cater for Active Living, which can ultimately create a built form that supports a more active and healthy Canberra. Ultimately, we hope that the checklist encourages the inclusion of Active Living design principles in future developments in the ACT