Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Measuring Sustainable Development Through Tax Increment Financed Brownfield Redevelopment Statutes: A Florida Case Study, Jeff Burton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research measures the theoretically sustainable development synergy of United States’ redevelopment, tax increment, and brownfield statutes and questions local redevelopment professionals on this combination’s implementation. This policy’s integration and application measurements guide increased knowledge and best practice methods in the path of America’s population migration into urbanized areas, thus managing the economic, environmental, and social impacts for future generations.

This examination used a pragmatic, qualitative, and quantitative mixed-method approach to identify, collect, code, and analyze redevelopment, tax increment, and state brownfields laws. An exhaustive literature review of the laws’ histories explained when and why they exist. In addition, a …

Bottom-Up Understanding Of Informal Settlements: Perspectives Of Urban Slum Dwellers In Nima, Ghana., Bernard Apeku

Theses and Dissertations

More than a quarter of the world’s population lives in informal settlements which house a rapidly growing proportion of the inhabitants of cities in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Accra, Ghana, and in the Global South more generally. However, scholars have shown that the urban planning and urban redevelopment strategies that affect these settlements are top-down in character with minimal resident participation. These prevailing planning and redevelopment strategies are based on the outsiders’ perceptions of informal neighborhoods, rendering them quite inefficient. Therefore, to develop workable policies and strategies that will improve the living condition of informal urban settlers, it is important …

Stony Point Fashion Park Small Area Plan, Jane I. Howk

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The purpose of the Stony Point Fashion Park Small Area Plan is to explore the value and future of the Stony Point Fashion Park through the creation of a small area plan. This topic needs to be addressed immediately because malls are facing a sharp decline in economic growth and use. Online shopping brings a competition that malls do not seem to be equipped to address. This drives the research question: how can Stony Point Fashion Park be reimagined to attract business, increase residential growth, and maximize the potential for new services? Malls that continue to flourish differ significantly from …

The Making And Unmaking Of An Appalachian “Home”: Tensions Between Tourism And Housing Development In Gatlinburg, Tennessee, J. Hope Amason

Anthropology and Museum Studies Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the economic and symbolic dimensions of redevelopment in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I focus on one particular project, the East Parkway at Baskins Creek Bypass District, which concerned ten acres that contained a vital housing resource for low-income tourism-industry workers: residential motels. I connect Gatlinburg’s housing crisis with changing labor patterns in the wake of economic restructuring. I present two letters submitted by real estate developers and solicited by the City of Gatlinburg. In analyzing the letters, I identify two tensions: (1) between workers’ homes and the aesthetics of “Appalachian” tourism, and (2) between representations of workers and the …

Contested Development: A Poor People's Movement For A Better Los Angeles, 1960–2018, Deshonay R. Dozier

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Zooming in on the historical development of Downtown Los Angeles’s (LA) Skid Row, this dissertation traces a continuity of abolitionist alternatives made by homeless and poor Angelinos from the 1960s to our present day. Skid Row is an important entry way into Los Angeles urban politics, particularly with respect to how forms of difference, at the axis of race, gender, class, and ability shape regional relations of property and the built environment. I show how these relations shape Downtown Los Angeles’s geography through carceral practices. These carceral practices, made by social services and policing, shape space by routinely containing and …

Myers Street Streetscape Plan, Nathan J. Manning

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The Scott’s Addition neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia has faced growing density and redevelopment as the neighborhood has become an appealing place to live, work, and play. Myers Street sits directly East from most of Scott’s Addition and has historically housed many industrial businesses. The street is rapidly transforming as many commercial/retail businesses are moving into the corridor. Streetscape redevelopment of the corridor will cause a need for complete streets infrastructure allowing the street to be a safe place for all people, urban design to provide visual aesthetics, and sustainable water runoff catchments to help displace stormwater to name just a …

Downtown Cleveland: The Dynamic Engine Of A Talent-Driven Economy, Richey Piiparinen, Jim Russell, Charlie Post

Richey Piiparinen

Cities have long been seen as places serving a variety of purposes. In 1933, for example, the architect Le Corbusier detailed four essential roles of a functional city. A working city is one that provides dwelling, work, recreation, and circulation to its people. Throughout the 20th century, trends in city building were to separate these functions into differing spaces. There were areas meant for living (the suburbs), areas meant for working (the central business district), and areas meant for playing (the entertainment district). More recently, the trend has been to move away from the division of city life toward a …

Housing Dynamics In Northeast Ohio: Setting The Stage For Resurgence, Thomas E. Bier

MSL Academic Endeavors eBooks

The book presents an overview of regional housing dynamics and consequent impacts in Northeast Ohio since the 1940s. Focus is on the city of Cleveland and its host county. Dynamics are examined in terms of supply and demand, population movement, lifespan of buildings, and the influence of government on the choices people have when considering where to live. Impacts include housing decline and abandonment, change in property value, and urban sprawl. Recommendations, centered on tax-base growth sharing, are presented for altering existing dynamics to support Northeast Ohio’s resurgence.

Surviving In The Land Of Opportunity: Outcomes Of Post-Crisis Urban Redevelopment In The United States, Brianna D. Foster

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

How we develop cities in the twenty-first century remains a subject of contentious debate worldwide. As neoliberal strategies are implemented in redevelopment projects, public safety nets are reduced and low-income communities of color in declining urban neighborhoods become particularly vulnerable. This multiple case study seeks to understand the experiences of post crisis urban redevelopment for low-income communities of color in 5 major U.S. cities. The data I analyzed include 101 short videos from the interactive documentary platform Land of Opportunity, documenting the process of post-crisis urban redevelopment in New Orleans, New York, Chicago, Detroit, and San Francisco. In doing so, …

Downtown Cleveland: The Dynamic Engine Of A Talent-Driven Economy, Richey Piiparinen, Jim Russell, Charlie Post

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Cities have long been seen as places serving a variety of purposes. In 1933, for example, the architect Le Corbusier detailed four essential roles of a functional city. A working city is one that provides dwelling, work, recreation, and circulation to its people.

Throughout the 20th century, trends in city building were to separate these functions into differing spaces. There were areas meant for living (the suburbs), areas meant for working (the central business district), and areas meant for playing (the entertainment district).

More recently, the trend has been to move away from the division of city life toward a …

Pre- And Post-Crisis Geographies Of New Urbanism In Atlanta's Inner Suburbs, Scott Nyland Markley

Masters Theses

Since the 1990s, Atlanta’s historically white and affluent northern inner suburbs have experienced increasing rates of poverty alongside growing racial/ethnic diversity, challenging a region notorious for private property politics and a history of supporting anti-immigrant and anti-poor legislation. Meanwhile, on the built landscape, high-end (re)development projects incorporating New Urbanist planning and design features, such as pedestrian accessibility, compact densities, and mixed land uses and housing types, have become increasingly common in this region, especially since the onset of the Great Recession. As Hanlon (2015) has noted, the “green turn” in public planning exemplified by New Urbanism may have adverse consequences …

Public Participation In Brownfield Redevelopment: The Role Of Public Participation In State Administered Voluntary Cleanup Programs, Erik Simon

All Dissertations

One of the key redevelopment tools for brownfield sites in the United States is the use of state administered Voluntary Cleanup Programs (VCP). These programs offer development entities the opportunity to cleanup and/or remediate the effected site in exchange for protection from liabilities. Public participation is a common component of such programs and each state has differing levels of policies and activities. This research investigates the different levels of public participation through state administered VCPs and seeks to understand how those different levels can affect cleanup and/or remediation plans for respective brownfield sites. The results show that there is a …

They Took My Bedroom: A Case Study Of Eminent Domain In New Orleans, Jared E. Munster

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Of the many powers granted to federal, state, and local governments through the Constitution of theUnited States, eminent domain is possibly the strongest and most imposing, at least as it relates to citizens’ property rights. This dissertation explores several large-scale public undertakings inNew Orleansduring the period from 1929 to 2011 in which the application of eminent domain was necessary to accomplish the government’s goals. This research window will allow the analysis of eminent domain applications from the construction of the Municipal Auditorium through the new medical center projects spurred by the flooding associated with Hurricane Katrina. This timeframe also allows …

Integrating Brownfield Redevelopments Into The Urban Fabric, Ryan Medlen

All Theses

The American landscape is dotted with hundreds of thousands of sites that are contaminated and underutilized. These sites bring down surrounding property values and face unique barriers that inhibit their redevelopment. Addressing these sites is complicated as a result of the number of sites needing attention and the limited resources to address them with. Much work has been done about the characteristics of these sites but minimal work has been done with regards to how they relate to surrounding area. The work that has been done in regards to brownfields and their relationship to the neighborhood has focused on site …

The Potential Of Downtown Las Vegas Becoming A Creative Milieu, Ana Magdalena Barragan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The city of Las Vegas is attempting to revitalize downtown through a creative economy by bringing cultural and experiential activities to the area in a mixed use arrangement with residential, business and civic uses. This study looks at the possibility of not only revitalizing downtown, but on it becoming a true creative milieu - a place that fosters creativity and innovation. It does so by first identifying three major forces working upon the realization of these goals: 1) the regional socio-economic conditions, 2) the government strategies, and 3) the creative population's participation.

The study conducts a quantitative assessments of each, …

Healing Earth, Helping Neighbors: Using Brownfield Remediation Projects To Advance Environmental Justice [Outline], Willie Shepherd

The Climate of Environmental Justice: Taking Stock (March 16-17)

Presenter: Willie Shepherd, Chairman and Co-Founder, Kamlet Shepherd & Reichert, LLP

2 pages.

"Presentation Outline"

Community Solutions: Moving Toward Brownfield Redevelopment, Matt Anderson, Scott Chapman, Martin Custred, Kirsten Krane, Camron Parker

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Urban growth boundaries are intended to encourage more development within the existing developed areas and save rural lands from urban sprawl. If this is true, why are there so many large areas of vacant land in the very heart of Portland? It is very likely that these vacant parcels of land are associated with the term "brownfields."

Brownfields are properties where expansion or development is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination on the site. Current owners, prospective purchasers, prospective lenders and neighbors have concerns about redeveloping brownfields. In many cases, these concerns cause properties to become abandoned or put …

The Impact Of Public Investment On Urban Revitalization: A Case Study On The Redevelopment Of Downtown Norfolk, Virginia 1935-1985, Marvin W. Lee

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Studies

This study focuses on downtown revitalization. It examines the effect of public investment in Downtown Norfolk in relation to various theories that have been developed to explain the growth of the central cores of cities.

A chronology is presented of the events that marked the beginning and the first fifty years of redevelopment in Downtown Norfolk, Virginia. Through reliance on newspaper articles, interviews and other documented sources, a record is provided that attempts to give deeper insight into the struggle that transformed slums and blight in downtown to a revitalized center of social and economic activity. This historical review allows …

Rejuvenation For Manhattan's West Side, Richard J. Kahn

Architecture Senior Theses

It is the intent of this proposal to redevelop a specific waterfront site, rejuvenating the area into one that people will want to be a part of, rather than shy away from. It will be through thorough exploration and experimentation of this special site condition (pier) that this will be achieved. It is intended that this proposal will develop a catalyst that willl generate further development along the zone of the water's edge. This catalyst will attempt to break away from the form and function of the existing pier buildings, which will make the further development of these sites a …