This dissertation investigates the politics of health in relation to the built environment and the suburban development processes in the Denver Metropolitan Area (DMA). Focusing on suburban communities such as Arvada, Broomfield, and Centennial, this study explores how urban planning processes reflect individual, group, and community values around public health, sustainability, and growth. By examining these understudied suburban areas, the research offers a new perspective on how smaller urban environments shape public health outcomes through planning and development practices. This study bridges the gap between bureaucratic planning procedures and the long-term public health effects that emerge from these processes. It identifies how urban planning decisions influence the social experience of place and residents’ well-being, often in ways not directly addressed by policymakers. Through a mixed-methods urban ethnographic approach, the research incorporates interviews with local leaders, visual sociological methods, content analysis of primary documents such as comprehensive plans, and thematic review of public hearings on local development projects. This approach captures the complexities of suburban development politics and its relationship to public health. The research highlights several key findings. First, city comprehensive plans in the DMA demonstrate limited integration of public health considerations, with plans often over-emphasizing car-centric designs while promoting integrated land-use strategies that encourage walkability, bikeability, and public transit use. Second, the results reveal a tension between the region’s goal of environmental stewardship and local development, which suburban cities attempt to balance while managing fiscal sustainability concerns. Additionally, the current planning practices have significant procedural issues with entrenched social inequalities that ultimately continue a status quo of restricting flexibility in land-use, reinforcing historical patterns of unequal access to urban resources such as parks, healthy food stores, and affordable housing and transportation. Planning commissions, composed of residents with varying levels of expertise, play a pivotal role in mediating between developers, professional planners, policymakers, and community members. However, they often face limitations stemming from outdated zoning or building codes and procedural constraints, which hinder their ability to significantly influence healthier development patterns. The dissertation identifies the need for improved public engagement strategies, including more deliberative planning commission hearings and simplified evaluation criteria for proposed developments. To promote healthier suburban environments in the DMA, this research points towards several different research and policy directions. Prioritizing environmental stewardship to slow unsustainable growth, refining comprehensive plans and zoning laws to enable mixed-use development, and expanding the sociological lens beyond major urban areas are a few key steps. Additionally, fostering citizen-driven, localized planning with clear evaluation metrics can strengthen public participation and ensure that diverse community needs are being addressed. This dissertation contributes to the urban sociology scholarship by showcasing the political and social dynamics that shape suburban development. By focusing on smaller cities, it challenges traditional urban sociological theories that have primarily studied major metropolitan areas and urban cores, offering practical insights for fostering healthier, more equitable suburban communities.