Neighborhood Design & Healthy Aging

By Saher Selod

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) produced a report about how neighborhoods and town design is an important aspect to aging well. Neighborhoods should be structured in a way that is conducive to an aging population, including designing different types of homes for individuals at different stages in their lives.

The EPA outlined a few straightforward propositions in regard to the relationship between healthy aging and community design. Older adults who want to remain active need to live in a place where they have access to spaces such as sidewalks and parks. In addition, the availability of community organizations and meaningful events allows older adults to remain active and engaged. Older adults also need access to transportation so they can remain mobile and connected with friends and family.

Most neighborhoods that were built in the last 60 years are not age-friendly. Developers created communities with houses that looked like one another and appealed to a fairly homogenous group (mostly families with younger children). The Smart Growth neighborhood, as the EPA calls it, takes into account that individuals change as they age and require different types of houses and living arrangements. Therefore, within one neighborhood there would be housing for young families and housing for older adults. Several generations of one family could live in the same neighborhood. Parks and community centers in the Smart Growth neighborhood would provide space for intergenerational mixing and socializing.

Older adults are often reliant on someone else for transportation. Neighborhoods that have several transportation options, such as public transportation and sidewalks, provide older adults with both mobility and independence. Smaller streets would provide older adults who still drive a safer alternative to the larger, fast-moving highways and roads.

Staying healthy is another benefit of a Smart Growth neighborhood. In addition to healthy produce, community gardens offer older adults a place for social interaction. Neighborhoods that have shops, grocery stores, and community centers within walking distance provide older adults with the incentive to go for walks and regularly get exercise.

More information can be found at www.epa.gov/aging/bhc/about.htm and www.smartgrowthamerica.org.

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