In January, the Alliance for Healthy Orange County held a convening on SB 1000, the law requiring that general plans include an environmental justice (EJ) element. The convening brought together over 60 planners and community-based representatives to discuss and gather input on what environmental justice means in Orange County and how to move forward to ensure the region develops strong plans. Participants also discussed the role of big data on general plan elements and were introduced to the new SB 1000 toolkit, created by the California Environmental Justice Alliance and Placeworks. Presenters at the convening includes local health care agency representatives as well as staff from the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. A key point of feedback during discussions was that active transportation planning should correlate with upcoming environmental justice element efforts, especially to increase safety of pedestrian and cyclists. Next steps will include working with local OC cities who are embarking on general plan updates to ensure active transportation and EJ work is infused together in planning.
