The Promise of Wisconsin's 1999 Comprehensive Planning Law: Land-Use Policy Reforms to Support Active Living

Abstract

Weaving together the disciplines of planning and policy change with the emerging research of active living, this article explores the competing interests and underlying political forces behind the design and passage of Wisconsin's Comprehensive Planning Law of 1999. While Wisconsin's law remains a work in progress, it illustrates the contemporary policy battles over land use and smart growth and the resurgence of the property-rights movement. It further highlights the influence of smart-growth coalitions and policy networks on planning reform. The authors suggest that planning practitioners and active-living proponents can adapt and transfer these policy lessons from Wisconsin to address the complex relationships of the built environment, physical activity, and the nation's current obesity problem through state and local planning reforms.