Creating Livable Communities for Older Adults

By Richard Shank

The AARP, along with the Center for Home Care Policy and Research, has issued a report entitled, “Opportunities for Creating Livable Communities.” This paper provides a framework for understanding the most common barriers to implementing livable communities and outlines ways in which they have been overcome. The goal of this report is to promote the importance of increased livability for older adults and other community members to city planners, regulators, policymakers, and community advocates. Mobility Counts

A livable community is defined as “one that has affordable and appropriate housing, adequate mobility options, and supportive community features,” allowing an older adult to live autonomously and remain meaningfully engaged in the civic and commercial aspects of a community. In order to provide more substance to this definition, the authors of this report have developed a framework of six key ingredients of livable communities, each playing a role in livability. They include:

Housing
Transportation and mobility
Land use
Cooperation and communication
Understanding the community and planning
Community Leadership

The report outlines “barriers to livability” within each category alongside potential opportunities for community development. Also included are examples of cities that have worked to overcome these barriers.

As an introduction to this report, a summary of the aforementioned barriers and opportunities is presented below for the housing, transportation, and community leadership components of livable communities.

Within housing, the biggest barriers to livability include: a lack of diverse housing; a rigid segregation of residential, commercial, and recreational areas into separate zones; market inefficiencies for developing affordable housing in livable areas; and home designs that are inadequate and detrimental to successful aging in place. Ideally, regulators will promote the ability of homeowners to develop accessory dwelling units (adding additional housing units on a single property) so that over-developed communities can continue to increase their supply of homes responsibly. Furthermore, thought should be given to rethinking the zoning process so that it includes the integration of the three key zones of livability (commercial, residential, and recreational), and be incorporated into the land use plans of communities with incentives for aging-friendly development. Finally, these zones need to be connected by navigable transportation options including walkable corridors and public transportation.

The livability of a community depends on the mobility options it provides to residents of all ages. It is very difficult to connect with the civic and commercial life of a community if much of it is inaccessible. Providing multiple transit options is of paramount importance to community living and must be promoted through good government and responsible community development. For transportation, the barriers to livability include: captivity to automobile transit; limited transportation alternatives, particularly in suburban and rural communities; roads and sidewalks that are often unconnected because of haphazard neighborhood development; and the discouragement of walking.

The primary leadership barrier cited by the report is a “lack of political will." Weak leadership in this arena has often allowed communities to change haphazardly without an attempt to direct those changes in ways that could increase the livability of the community. Community change might seem like a risky topic for politicians to discuss; however, a politician who guides these changes under the rubric of increasing the quality of life and livability of the community will be able to garner important resident support for their initiatives. The report further illustrates that this model of community development was seen as matter of common sense prior to the suburbanization boom of the 1950s.

Integrating commercial, residential, and recreational land use, as well as connecting them with viable transportation options for residents of all ages, will increase the quality of life within communities—especially in smaller towns, suburbs, and rural areas. By increasing livability, community leaders will help sustain, and in some cases enhance, the community by promoting resident engagement in local civic and commercial matters.

For more information, see the report at http://assets.aarp.org.

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