Built environment needs assessment
Health begins where people live, learn, work, and play. Characteristics of a community—such as access or lack of access to affordable, healthy foods and safe spaces to walk—can either support health or make it harder to be healthy.
What's more—its impacts are broad and long-lasting—making it even more essential that we craft communities that leave us (and future generations) healthier, more connected, and better off than before.
Before we can invest in our shared environments, we first need to understand the current landscape. In 2024 and 2025, the Healthy Communities Work Group mapped key data to create a clearer picture of conditions across SLO County communities.
The data outlined below informed these discussions, alongside consideration of where political will exists to support future community investments. Based on this analysis, Healthy Communities Work Group identified San Miguel, Oceano, Nipomo, and Los Osos as the high-priority communities for initial focus. Explore highlights of their data below.
Neighborhoods with accessible and healthy food options see higher rates of fruit and vegetable intake, and lower rates of chronic disease like obesity and diabetes.
The options available in a neighborhood often dictate what foods individuals and families are able to choose, making it an important part of a healthy neighborhood.
Where are healthy food options in SLO County?
Where are SLOCOG's Disadvantaged Communities?
The 2023-2045 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) is the region's long-range plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy. The RTP provides recommendations to help cities and the county make important decisions about transportation, housing, and land-use. The plan also includes a regional definition of Disadvantaged Communities, which allows SLO County to compete for statewide competitive grant programs (such as the Caltrans’ Active Transportation Program (ATP)), acts as a key piece of SLOCOG's Environmental Justice Policy, and contributes to ranking criteria that prioritizes future transportation projects — assigning additional points to projects and programs in these areas that helps them rank higher on the priority list (thus funding them sooner).
SLOCOG considers all scores over 116 (the top 20%) to be a disadvantaged community. The score uses available and accessible data sources, like the U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS) and school poverty data from the state of California.
Where are lower income communities in SLO County?
Income shapes access to resources that support good health—such as quality schools, health care, nutritious food, and safe neighborhoods. In contrast, lower-income communities often lack health promoting amenities like parks, grocery stores, jobs, and housing.
These differences create health disadvantages, with life expectancy in lower-income communities averaging more than 10 years shorter than in higher-income areas.
In SLO County, the percentage of students eligible for free- and reduced-price meals is used as an indicator of lower-income communities and helps identify where additional investments can have the greatest impact.
APCD utilizes the California Air Resources Board's California Climate Investments Priority Populations map. Per Assembly Bill (AB) 1550, 80% of APCD projects need to take place in these low-income communities (low-income definitions are set by Assembly Bill (AB) 1550; see U.S. Census data sources here).
Where are APCD's priority populations?
SLOCOG Safety Field Walks
In 2025, SLO Health Counts participated in SLOCOG's 'Road to Zero' Regional Road Safety Walk Audits, alongside regional partners (Cal Poly, CHP, Public Health, Public Works, Community Schools, Advisory Councils, Kittelson & Associates).
Nine walks were conducted in Nipomo, Avila Beach, Shandon, Cayucos, Templeton, Creston, San Simeon, San Miguel and Cambria to understand the pedestrian and road conditions in each community, and experiences helped shape healthy neighborhoods considerations.