Contributors
Introduction & Background
Download 189.92 Kb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- 1.1 Health Impact Assessment (HIA)
1. Introduction & BackgroundThe Atlanta Turner Field development was completed in 1996 to house the Summer Olympic Games. Following the end of the Olympics, the stadium was retrofitted for use as a baseball stadium and became home to the Atlanta Braves baseball team. Now, less than 20 years since their inaugural game at Turner Field, the Braves will be moving to a new stadium complex to be built in Cobb county, leaving the future of the Turner Field development hanging in the balance. A number of stakeholders, including Georgia State University (GSU), have shown interest in the redevelopment of the property. In conjunction with Carter Consulting, Columbia Residential, and HGOR, GSU has shared a preliminary proposal for the redevelopment of the Turner Field area (for full proposal, click here). Components of the redevelopment of this 55-acre parcel include the conversion of the current Turner Field Stadium into GSU’s football stadium, construction of a baseball stadium on the site of the previous Fulton County Stadium, student housing, academic and related offices, a retail village, market housing, townhouses and single-family homes, commuter parking, and transit. The entire redevelopment occurring on the 55-acre parcel is referred to as the Turner Field redevelopment in this HIA. Local residents and community organizations have expressed concern that the Turner Field redevelopment will fail to recognize opportunities to affect the potential health impacts on the community, including, but not limited to, housing affordability, employment, transportation, and green space access. Little is currently known about these potential impacts on residents in adjoining communities, specifically the Neighborhood Planning Unit-V (NPU-V). There is a substantial need to assess the impact of such a redevelopment on the health and well-being of individuals living within the surrounding community to help inform decision-makers and local communities - a community health impact assessment (HIA) is one such tool to do so. 1.1 Health Impact Assessment (HIA)An HIA is a combination of procedures, methods, and tools by which a policy, program, or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population and the distribution of those effects within the population. HIAs seek to provide decision makers from the non-health sector with recommendations to mitigate the negative and maximize the positive impacts on health or health inequities. HIAs assess health from a broad perspective, taking into account a wide range of environmental factors, such as housing conditions, roadway safety, and social and economic factors. Often, HIAs can promote civic engagement by engaging community members and other stakeholder groups who will be affected by a decision (SOPHIA, 2014). This project, known as a rapid Health Impact Assessment (HIA), was conducted as a project of the Fall 2014 Urban Health graduate course (PH7300) at Georgia State University. The students conducted all phases of the project within the course. Because of the potential utility to the university and to the community, this HIA report was written to provide a resource and set of recommendations regarding potential health implications. While we believe that this report has valid and useful information and findings, it should be stressed that the HIA was conducted as an educational exercise, with limited time available and only a preliminary proposal document. Community members impacted by the Turner Field redevelopment contributed significantly to this project through their participation in a survey and providing feedback on preliminary findings of the HIA. The objective of this Turner Field redevelopment HIA is to present potential and perceived impacts on the health and well-being of residents and other stakeholders living within NPU- V. This was done by assessing current conditions within the community, feedback and concerns of the community as they relate to the proposed redevelopment, and evaluating potential changes that result from the proposed redevelopment. After these matters are addressed, evidence-based strategies and recommendations will be proposed to address identified shortcomings for the proposal. These recommendations will help decision makers in developing a proposal that meets the health concerns of the local community. From November 25, 2014 to December 11, 2014 we administered an online survey, the “Community Survey of Health Impacts of the Turner Field Redevelopment”, hereafter referred to as “the survey.” The purpose of the survey was to identify specific community concerns about redevelopment of the area and the Carter-GSU proposal. The survey was developed as a web-based, online survey using Qualtrix software. It was advertised through community-maintained social media and through word-of-mouth to community members of neighborhoods proximal to the Turner Field Redevelopment. We received a total of 228 responses, 195 of which were complete responses. Among respondents who selected a neighborhood, 30.3% of responses (n=59) were from neighborhoods within NPU-V, the target area of this HIA, while 69.7% of responses (n=136) were from nearby neighborhoods. Respondents were only allowed to respond once. Responses were saved when proceeding to the next question. Respondents were then allowed to return to complete the survey at a later time. Most questions used a 5-point Likert scale: (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) neither agree nor disagree, (4) agree, and (5) strongly agree. The survey included a limited number of topic areas. Given greater resources and time, we believe the participation in similar future surveys could be improved upon. With more time, it is likely we could have gotten greater participation from residents of NPU-V as we were unable to connect with as many community groups as would be necessary to produce what would be considered representative results. The provision of resources to administer a paper-and-pencil survey could be used to help gather responses from community members without Internet access or those who may be economically vulnerable. The goal of the survey was to gather respondent feedback on their concerns of the impact of the Turner Field redevelopment as currently proposed for the given topic (e.g. employment, housing) on their neighborhood. We do agree with some respondents’ concerns that understanding the full breadth of potential impacts is important. Our hope is that a future comprehensive HIA could expand upon these results, especially as the redevelopment comes into greater focus and resources are put forth to more precisely assess the potential impacts pertinent to health. Some overall respondent concerns regarding improving health and the Turner Field redevelopment include:
We hope that this HIA will serve as a means for making such health concerns of the community a priority for discussion concerning the Turner Field redevelopment. Many aspects of the plan have yet to be defined that could influence health behaviors, including (a) the types of businesses that will be within the redevelopment which could promote or discourage health behaviors (e.g., fast food, bars, video stores), (b) utilization of adjacent vacant lots which have the potential to be used for community gardens or playgrounds, (c) connections of paths and sidewalks to existing walking and bicycling trails, and (d) the specific street design characteristics to encourage or discourage walking or bicycling (e.g., trees, crossing aids, traffic calming). As the proposal comes into focus, further efforts will be needed to address the changing potential and perceived health impacts on the surrounding community. The three defining values of the Turner Field HIA are (1) interdisciplinary problem-solving, (2) actionable recommendations, and (3) meaningful community engagement. Directory: 2015 2015 -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 2015 -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d 2015 -> Police Militarization 2015 -> Medical Radiography Program 2015 -> 2015 ihbb championships: hs history Bowl Round 4 – Prelims First Quarter 2015 -> Desk review yemen 2015 -> Wrtp/big step · 3841 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, wi 53208 2015 -> 1. naclo 2015 – North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad 2015 -> Rao bulletin 1 December 2015 html edition this bulletin contains the following articles 2015 -> Volume Ⅴ (2015) On The 2015 China Victory Day Parade Download 189.92 Kb. Share with your friends:
|