South Downtown Tacoma Subarea Plan Health Impact Assessment

Christine was part of a graduate class on Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) at the University of Washington that conducted an HIA on the city of Tacoma’s South Downtown Subarea Plan. The course was taught by Andrew L. Dannenberg, MD, MPH and Fritz Wagner, PhD.

Students used academic and publicly available literature, existing HIAs, field visits, and informant interviews to assess health outcomes related to mobility, economic security, food access, mental health and social capital, affordable and healthy housing, and environmental health. Recommendations included promoting safe physical activity for pedestrians and bicyclists, identifying efforts to achieve economic development goals, providing access to healthy foods, fostering community and social interactions, modifying affordable housing guidelines, and mitigating contaminant exposure. City planners agreed to review the findings and consider the recommendations. A copy of the the HIA is available here.