Architecture Commons^™

The Future Of The Urban Street In The United States: Visions Of Alternative Mobilities In The Twenty-First Century, Esther Zipori

Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with the present and future of urban streets in the United States. The goal is to document and analyze current visions, policies, and strategies related to the form and use of American urban streets. The dissertation examines current mobility trends and offers a framework for organizing visions of the future of urban streets, evaluating them through three lenses: safety, comfort, and delight: assessing physical conditions in accordance with livability standards toward sustainable development. At the same time, it demonstrates the way 12 scenarios (NACTO Blueprint for Autonomous Urbanism, Sidewalk Labs: Quayside Project, Public Square by FXCollaborative, …

Nexuscapes: A Landscape Approach For A Transdisciplinary Water-Energy-Food Nexus Decision-Making Process, Fortino Acosta

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study develops a reliable transdisciplinary framework for complex ecological and social systems by characterizing, mapping, typifying, assessing, and testing enhanced water-energy-food nexus scenarios under critical time constraints, specialized skills, or sensitive data accessibility. Detached management of limited essential resources like fresh water, reliable energy from renewable sources, and nutritious food can jeopardize regional economies and governance. Using a novel landscape approach, this study recommends a decision-making the framework focused on the circular economy that induces collaboration among diverse sectors and brings strategic coordination, specificity, and magnitude to the proposed solutions. The study elaborates on a decision-making tool that integrates …

Exploring The Impact Of The Habitat For Humanity Home-Building Process On Partner Families' Holistic Well-Being, Hawkley Pusey, Nikhil Mathur, Kathryn Figliomeni, Nanditha Srinivasan, Keely R. Dehn, Jason A. Ware

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how participating in the Habitat for Humanity house-building process influenced participants’ purpose well-being, social well-being, community well-being, physical and mental well-being, and financial well-being, and how effective Habitat for Humanity is in aiding neighborhood revitalization within the Greater Lafayette area. The research project resulted in a presentation of quantitative data and a testimonial video that highlighted the stories of families that had worked with Habitat for Humanity. Quantitative data was gathered through a survey that addressed respondents’ levels of satisfaction within the various categories of well-being mentioned above. Testimonial information was gathered …

Planning For Micromobilities In Canada: Transportation Policy Review, Nathaniel C. Frisbee Ba, Jason Gilliland Phd, Jinhyung Lee Phd

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Canadian municipalities face a complex decision on how they tackle the ‘wicked problem’ of climate change over the next decades. One form of sustainable transportation that municipalities could pursue is light electric vehicles (LEVs), commonly referred to as e-bikes and e-scooters or referred to as a Power Assisted-Bicycle by Transportation Canada. Transportation-related policies and plans of Canadian municipalities were evaluated for their consideration of LEVs. Municipalities were selected based on having a university campus within their boundaries, as this is where the highest density of Canadian population resides. The analysis spreads across all 10 provinces in Canada.  There are significant …

Weathering The Storm: Navigating Urban Ecologies Of Communication In Times Of Crisis, Austin Hestdalen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores cities as urban ecologies of communication in which crises emerge and are given significance within the dialogic relations cultivated among public actors attempting to make a living, together, within the shared historical-cultural contexts of everyday life. To describe cities as urban ecologies of communication is to describe them in terms of urban communication and its interdisciplinary foundations in the study of rhetoric, philosophy, planning, policy, architecture, sociology, geography, and media. The first chapter introduces the challenges of urban risk and crisis management within the complex ecologies of communication constituted by cities and reviews how ‘risk’ and ‘crisis’ …

Cityengine As A Tool For Visualizing Neighborhood Change: An Initial Study, Zach Noyes

City and Regional Planning

Urban planning is reliant upon genuine public engagement to ensure that planning and policy decisions reflect the ideas shared by the public. Because planning is a profession largely focused on the physical and built implications of more abstract planning concepts, effective graphic communication is critical to securing public support and understanding of policy decisions. ESRI's CityEngine uses procedural modeling technology to render personally-tailored scenes to non-planner members of the public, and shows potential to positively change the way that planners generate graphic representations of physical impacts of policy changes. This initial study establishes a methodology for determining the efficacy of …

Affordable Housing On Community Land Held In Trust: An Essential Component Of Sustainable Development, Kevin S. Tellez Ramos

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project summarizes an assessment of affordable housing development in Sonoma County - centered in an analysis of sustainability. The language of sustainability requires a new vocabulary for conversation on a broad topic. The sustainable development goals can be directed for the benefit of organizations that contribute to solutions that lack insight towards greater longevity for the at-risk members of the community (i.e., greenwashing, net-zero emissions, etc.). More recent sustainable development literature from the United Nations reveals new priorities: social, economic, and environmental sustainability. (This applies to developing nations of which the researcher believes Sonoma County, California and the United …

Our Streets: Increasing Equity In Active Transportation Planning Through Community Outreach, Jordan Hoy

Master's Projects and Capstones

ABSTRACT Significant research has demonstrated that active transportation infrastructure is essential for the growth and livability of San Francisco: it increases access to economic opportunities, promotes overall improved public health, encourages mobility without contributing to roadway congestion, prevents traffic injuries and fatalities, and supports the sustainability goals of the city. Despite the fact that communities of color will benefit the most from active transportation infrastructure development, historical disenfranchisement in tandem with a lack of diverse representation within public participation contributes to an inequitable distribution of walking and biking investments throughout the city of San Francisco. While research shows that Black …

Postscript, Arthur C. Nelson

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Afterword - It Has Been A Good Ride, Julian Conrad Juergensmeyer, James Nicholas

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Our Cities, Ourselves, Nan Ellin

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Just as we are what we eat, we are where we live. We breathe the air, drink the water and inhabit the built and natural landscapes. We make our places and they, in turn, make us. While great places nourish body and soul, poor environmental and urban quality challenges us physically as well as emotionally. How might we heal our places, so that they sustain us, rather than strain us?

On The Restorative Power Of Nature, Or Why Every Neighborhood Needs A Public Japanese Garden, Mira Locher, Keith Bartholomew

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

In celebration of Professor Arthur C. “Chris” Nelson’s illustrious career and our shared ambles in academia and in gardens in Japan, we offer this essay on public health and public gardens, namely gardens in the traditional Japanese style and how they could play an important role in addressing pressing public health issues in urban areas in the U.S. (and elsewhere).

Stewardship Of The Built Environment In A Changing World, Robert A. Young

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Stewardship of the built environment emerged in the mid-1990s (Young 1994) when preservationists and conservationists needed to broaden their qualitative emotion-based arguments and adopt quantitative environmental and economic evidence to counter proposals that threatened the viability of both the built and natural environments. Social, environmental, and economic (SEE) concerns at the turn of the twenty-first century formed the triptych of the metrics found within the philosophy which: “…recognizes that the preservation, rehabilitation, and reuse of existing older and historic buildings contributes to sustainable design; respects the past, present, and future users of the built environment; and balances the needs of …

Becoming Henderson: How A "Boomburg" Used A Future-Focused Strategic Plan To Become A True Urban Place, Debra March, Stephanie Garcia-Vause, Lisa Corrado

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Since its incorporation in 1953, the City of Henderson, Nevada has grown from a sparsely populated, one-industry town into a “boomburb” comprised of numerous nationally recognized master-planned communities with an over-arching, future-focused strategic plan. This article is a case study of how this boomburb took advantage of its position in the American suburban landscape to become a true urban place. It also offers a checklist for other communities to consider as they plan for their own futures.

Beyond Brownfields Redevelopment: A Policy Framework For Regional Land Recycling Planning, Joseph Schilling

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

The fields of urban policy and urban planning lack a cohesive and comprehensive framework for recycling vacant and abandoned properties. Past and present efforts to repurpose vacant land and abandoned properties were often narrow responses driven primarily by economic redevelopment policies such as urban renewal of the 1950s & 1960s, deindustrialization of the 1970s & 1980s, and the public-private partnerships featured during the 1990s & 2000s. The 2008-2015 mortgage foreclosure crisis and Great Recession put the policy spotlight on how to address the widespread impacts from thousands of vacant and/or foreclosed homes that affected diverse markets and communities across the …

Making Places Better, Arthur C. Nelson

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of Fiscal Impact Analysis And Where It Needs To Go, L. Carson Bise, Colin Mcaweeney

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Communities need analytical tools and technical support to assess and balance multiple priorities when making land use and development decisions. For many communities, priorities to be considered regarding land use decisions include resource conservation and climate adaptation, economic development, investing in new versus existing communities, and maintaining fiscal responsibility. This article examines the historical use of fiscal impact analysis and some thoughts on where the field should go in the future.

From The Abacus To Big Data: The Evolution Of Data-Driven Planning In The U.S. And Where The Field Will Be Headed, Keuntae Kim

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

The nature of planning involves a set of decision-making processes to fulfill people’s needs and expectations of where they live, work, and play. Dealing with the nature of planning—complexity, uncertainty, and disagreement—requires specific tools to explore various aspects of the built environment as a whole. Various types of data have been extracted, transformed, and loaded to describe the past and current conditions of the built environment, and planners have developed and applied data-driven planning tools to explore the knowns and unknowns of the urban futures and transform them into a set of actions based on the goals with consensus. This …

Advances In Planning Analysis And Engagement, Arthur C. Nelson

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Adventures In Land Use Dispute Resolution: Utah's Innovative Program To Provide "Free" Legal Advice To Local Government, Neighbors, And Property Owners, Craig Call

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Utah may have the nation’s most robust process allowing citizens to question local government land use decisions. This exists in the Office of the Property Rights Ombudsman (OPRO), created in 1997 and charged to assist in land use disputes in 2006. In three parts, this article divides an overview of the history of that office into two eras, evaluates one of the key functions of the current era—the preparation of advisory opinions (AOs), and suggests that Utah’s OPRO is a useful model for other states to consider. Most of this article focuses on the debates leading to the second era …

Saving The World Through Zoning: The Sustainable Development Code, Regeneration, And Beyond, Jonathan Rosenbloom, Chris Duerksen

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

The land use and planning community began to address sustainability at the local level in the 1990s, but in reality, state-of-the-art development codes drafted in the 1990s and early 2000s did little to address climate change, energy conservation, community health, loss of biodiversity, shifting biochemical cycles, racial justice, food supply, and other key sustainability issues. This article reviews past challenges that had to be overcome for sustainable development codes to become mainstream. The good news is that an increasing number of local governments are adopting ambitious sustainable development codes that hold great promise to not only protect the environment and …

Land Use Trends In The Rocky Mountain West: The Role Of The Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, Susan Daggett

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

As one of the fastest-growing regions of the country, the communities of the intermountain West are poised to lead the nation in many ways, including how we manage change, create communities, and foster local places that contribute to a very high quality of life by nurturing and valuing the natural assets that make this region so special. This essay will reflect on how development patterns in the region have shifted over time. This essay will also ponder some potential emerging trends and areas of focus for the future, in the hopes that future scholars, students, and practitioners will build on …

The Rise And Fall Of Smart Growth: An Exploration Of The Appearance Of Smart Growth And Related Terms In Google Searches, Apa Conference Programs, And Selected Newspapers, Gerrit Knaap, Rebecca Lewis, Arnab Chakraborty, Katy June-Friesen, Naman Molri

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Smart growth was conceived in the mid to late 1990s as a fresh approach to urban development that was neither for nor against growth but sought to change its form and location as an antidote to urban sprawl. The prescription was supported by a broad network of organizations and promoted extensively nationwide. Toward that end, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched the Smart Growth Network that includes many of the nation’s premier planning, development, environmental, and local government organizations. Today, many would argue that smart growth has become the predominant planning paradigm in the United States.

It has now been …

Growth Management's Fourth Wave, Revisited, Tim Chapin, Lindsay E. Stevens

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

In this article we provide an update to Timothy S. Chapin’s article, “From Growth Controls, to Comprehensive Planning, to Smart Growth: Planning's Emerging Fourth Wave,” published in 2012 in the Journal of the American Planning Association. It takes advantage of a decade of insight into national planning and development trends, as well as our experience with growth management in Florida to rethink this fourth wave. Notably, forces have emerged to fight centralized, state and local-directed land planning, led by a powerful development industrial complex. We conclude that growth management may struggle to remain a centerpiece of the planning profession unless …

The Future Of The Comprehensive Plan, David Rouse

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

This article begins with a brief history of the comprehensive plan from its historic roots to the present day. It then considers contemporary comprehensive planning practice, using the Comprehensive Plan Standards for Sustaining Places developed by the American Planning Association (APA) as a benchmark. The article concludes by exploring how the comprehensive plan can and must evolve to address the major challenges of the 21st century. It draws on research and content from The Comprehensive Plan: Sustainable, Resilient and Equitable Communities for the 21st Century (Rouse and Piro 2022).

Advances In Planning Processes And Implementation, Arthur C. Nelson

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Homeownership For The Long Run, Susan M. Wachter, Arthur Acolin

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

U.S. homeownership rates have largely recovered since the depths of the Great Recession, except for Black Americans. In 2019, 42 percent of Black households owned a home, compared to 73 percent of white households. Currently, about two thirds of households own their home, a rate of homeownership that has prevailed in the U.S. since mid-century. However, whether this rate can be sustained over the next decades is in question. Black and Hispanic/Latinx homeownership rates have remained far below that of the white non-Hispanic rate. In addition, the homeownership rate for younger households is now below its level prior to the …

Market Demand-Based Planning And Permitting: Special Case Of Affordable Housing, Robert Hibberd

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Arthur C. Nelson has advanced the concept of market demand-based planning and permitting (MDBPP) as a way in which to balance the need for development within the limits of market capacity. Lacking MDBPP discipline, real estate markets are prone to over-development that can lead to economic downturns including notably the Great Recession of 2007-2009. This article will unpack the history and challenge of MDBPP and demonstrate its efficacy. Then, it will apply these principles to the specific wicked problem of housing affordability, which is both ongoing and emerging in nature. It will tie this problem to a call for MDBPP …

Affordable Housing: Three Roadblocks To Regulatory Reform, Dwight Merriam

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

This article focuses on techniques, initiatives, and regulatory reforms that may help improve affordability in housing, and thereby serve the need for economic, social, and racial equity. It focuses especially on three impediments standing in the way of affordability: the myth of Home Rule, limitations of the Fair Housing Act, and the pervasive use of private covenants and restrictions. Those roadblocks deserve the closest attention and concerted action and must be knocked down, once and for all, to get the housing we so desperately need.

The Enigma Of Housing Choice, Casey Dawkins

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

The U.S. faces a housing choice crisis. The growing shortage of affordable rental homes and looming mismatch between the homes offered for sale by baby boomers and the homes sought by the next generation of homeowners point to a need to fundamentally reshape the extent and diversity of the nation’s housing options. Housing and land-use policy experts have appealed to the aim of expanding housing choice to justify the removal of regulatory restrictions on certain housing types, the construction of affordable rental housing in transit-adjacent neighborhoods, the elimination of housing market discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity, and …