Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

Sprawl In Canada And The United States, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

The purpose of this Article is to ascertain whether (1) suburban sprawl is as widespread in Canadian metropolitan areas as in their American counterparts, and (2) Canadian government policies, and in particular Canadian zoning law and transportation policies, encourage sprawl. The article concludes that Canadian metropolitan areas are in fact somewhat less sprawling than most of their American counterparts, but that in Canada, as in the United States, government land use regulation and government transportation policy do favor sprawl to some extent. For example, in both nations municipal zoning regulations, by limiting density and forcing landowners to build parking lots, …

Historic Preservation And Its Cultured Despisers: Reflections On The Contemporary Role Of Preservation Law In Urban Development, J. Peter Byrne

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The past years have seen widely noticed critiques of historic preservation by “one of our leading urban economists,” Edward Glaeser, and by star architect Rem Koolhaas. Glaeser, an academic economist specializing in urban development, admits that preservation has value. But he argues in his invigorating book, Triumph of the City, and in a contemporaneous article, Preservation Follies, that historic preservation restricts too much development, raises prices, and undermines the vitality of the cities. Koolhaas is a Pritzker Prize-winning architect and oracular theorist of the relation between architecture and culture. In his New York exhibit, Cronocaos, he argued …

Razing Lafitte: Defending Public Housing From A Hostile State, Leigh Graham

Publications and Research

The contentious politics of the demolition of Lafitte public housing in post- Katrina New Orleans and its replacement with mixed-income properties is a telling case of the strategic conflicts housing advocates face in public housing revitalization. It reveals how the qualified outcomes of HOPE VI interact with local institutional and historical circumstances to confound the equity and social justice goals of housing and community development advocates. It shows the limits to public housing revitalization as an urban recovery strategy when hostile government leadership characterizes a region, and the state is recast as an adversary rather than revitalization partner. This case …

The Operation Was Successful But The Patient Died: The Politics Of Crisis And Homelessness In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Evan Casper-Futterman

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

On July 4^th, 2007, a small group of housing activists set up a tent city encampment in a plaza adjacent to New Orleans City Hall. The action resulted in the creation of Homeless Pride, a small group of politicized Plaza residents. Six months later, hundreds of homeless people were moved from the park, and it was fenced off. Using archival videos, interviews, and news media, this thesis analyzes the opportunities and constraints that activists, service providers, and local officials faced in light of two intersecting and overlapping contexts. The first context is the immediate crisis of the levee …

Public Space Planning As A Catalyst For Dweller Initiated Slum Upgrading: Ahmedabad, India, Christopher Bystedt

Master's Theses

This research observes how public space planning can improve slum upgrading projects, focusing on two case study slums in Ahmedabad, India.

The inclusion of formal public space planning into slum upgrading schemes can act as a catalyst for dweller-initiated housing improvements. While municipalities that choose to upgrade their slums are primarily concerned with supplying bare necessity infrastructure—such as water, sewage, and paving—most upgrading schemes ignore the reality that slum communities are complex, integral components of the urbanization process. These settlements deserve and necessitate comprehensive design and planning services which will integrate the community into the larger urban fabric.

This thesis …

Water Borne Diseases: A Cry Of A Trapped Community, Passmore Mudundulu

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

The purpose of this study was to understand the problem of attaining safe and clean water that has contributed to high incidence of water borne diseases and to investigate its effects on the residents of Chawama Township, Lusaka, Zambia. A survey was used to collect data from 400 male and female participants to determine their source, treatment and storage of water; sanitary facilities; attitude, experience and knowledge of waterborne diseases. Findings indicated that, the most common source of water was communal city taps and residents did not boil or add chlorine to make it safe for use, making it susceptible …

City Of King City: South First Street Corridor Masterplan, Fall 2011, Crp 341 Urban Design Studio

City and Regional Planning Studios and Projects

City of King’s South First Street Corridor Master Plan is a draft document prepared by Cal Poly’s Community Design Lab as a contribution to the city’s efforts to initiate a revitalization process for the street and the areas immediately adjacent to it. Revitalizing this corridor is an important endeavor not only from the economic, functional, and livability perspectives, but also because it provides the first view of the city for drivers entering from the south. Therefore, public and private investment along South First Street should be strategically integrated and coherently designed. The South First Street Corridor Master Plan provides the …

Downtown Revitalization Strategy Report For Glenrock, Wy, Mary Phillips

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Downtown Revitalization Strategy Report for Glenrock, WY

Mary E. Phillips

The following project submitted for the Master of City and Regional Planning Professional Project is the Downtown Revitalization Strategy Report for Glenrock, WY completed November 25, 2009.

At the onset of the project, the Town of Glenrock, WY was recognized as an Aspiring Main Street Community, and sought guidance to become a Certified Main Street Community. This Strategy Report was prepared to provide an implementation plan for revitalization of the downtown following the Main Street Approach, as well as for achievement of a Certified Main Street Community status by …

Experiential Interior Design: Branding Entertainment And Nightlife For The Postmodern Young Urban Professional, Niccole S. Skomal

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Past study on Interior Design has been primarily looked at through the lenses of aesthetics and functionality. Only recently have scholars begun to see the influence marketing, in the form of branding, can have on the Interior Design process in targeting specific lifestyle groups. The purpose of this research is to understand the fabric of the postmodern Young Urban Professional lifestyle as a marketing tool for branding and designing services in the form of entertainment and nightlife. With an increasing lack of community and social connectedness in today’s postmodern society, Young Urban Professionals tend to consume entertainment and nightlife as …

A Health Impact Assessment Of Mixed Use Redevelopment Nodes And Corridors In Lincoln, Nebraska, Katie Clear

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Obesity is a growing threat to America’s health. The national rate of obesity is 34% (Health Consequences, 2011), and Lincoln, Nebraska is not far behind that trend at 20.7% (BRFSS, 2011). Increasing physical activity is one way to reduce weight gain, (Edwards, 2008) and further studies show that small changes to the built environment can induce people to use alternative and more active forms of transportation such as biking, walking, and public transportation (Edwards, 2008; Zheng, 2008). The 2040 Comprehensive Plan for Lincoln, NE includes language to create a more walkable community. The proposal is to redevelop existing areas within …

The Urban Fabric Of The Great Plains, Andrew Becker

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

To most Americans the Great Plains region of North America is mysterious place. There are disagreements when defining its limits, and some people just refer to it as the Midwest. The Great Plains has been a place under an ocean, a place under glaciers, and a place on fire. It was once dubbed “the Great American Desert,” but is now known for its agricultural viability. The Great Plains sparks imagination because it is so massive and was one of the final frontiers for Euro-American settlement. The Great Plains is seen as a rural place but the majority of the region’s …

Sioux Falls Downtown Design Guidelines: Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Colin Punt

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

In the late 1980s, Sioux Falls, South Dakota recommitted to its downtown, removed a dead pedestrian mall, and joined the National Main Street program. The city‘s downtown revival efforts have been largely successful in the past twenty-some years, but this success has rendered the current downtown design guidelines from the early 1990s both function-ally and aesthetically outdated. The original city ordinance written in conjunction with the design guidelines has given both the City Planning Department and the Downtown Design Review Committee, which is appointed by the Director of Planning and administered by Downtown Sioux Falls, Inc., very little power to …

Bat Species Diversity At An Urban-Rural Interface: Dominance By One Species In An Urban Area, Jason Philip Damm

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The growth of urban areas is known to affect different species of wildlife in varying ways. Many organisms have exhibited declines in abundance due to habitat loss, while overall species diversity decreases. Bats can serve as reliable indicators of habitat quality and level of anthropogenic disturbance. To investigate urbanization impacts on a Midwestern bat community, I analyzed nine years of mist-net captures from a study area on the edge of Indianapolis, Indiana, where the percentage of urbanized ground cover ranged from zero to 26%, within 1.3-km of a net site. I used Pearson correlation statistics to examine the effect of …

Factors That Cause Growth And Development In The City Of Lincoln, Ne, Kaylene Tegtmeier

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

This qualitative study looks at what factors may contribute to the outward growth and development of the city of Lincoln, Nebraska. The two main factors the study discusses are the Lincoln Public School planners and their placement of schools in the city, and the “American dream” of the people, looking at where the people of Lincoln want to be living throughout the city and what some of their daily habits are. This study also discusses some of the main visions of the city of Lincoln’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan how the plan’s ambitions may affect the two factors looked at in …

Building Low-Carbon Cities Through Local Land Use Planning: Towards An Appropriate Urban Development Model For Sustainability, Ting Wei

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

The main purpose of this thesis is to study how to establish low carbon, attractive cities for human beings. This paper attempts to contribute to sustainable development by encouraging the development of low-carbon cities through local land use decisions. The study proposes to answer the following two research questions: 1) how well do the fastest growing cities in the U.S. implement low-carbon principles in their local comprehensive land use plans?, and 2) how can local land use plans be improved to achieve the goal of low-carbon cities? Through evaluating the local land use comprehensive plans of the top fifty fastest …

Clunia: Excavating A Roman Provincial Amphitheatre, Christopher Walz

Kaleidoscope

No abstract provided.

Upper Salinas Headwaters Conservation Plan, Justin T. Saydell

Master's Theses

The Upper Salinas Headwaters Conservation Plan is an effort to understand the cultural and ecosystem resources in the region, develop tools for conservation planning, and suggest a strategy and plan of action for implementation of those strategies. The plan covers a 218 square mile area between the Santa Lucia and the La Panza mountain ranges, south of Atascadero and east of the City of San Luis Obispo. The Conservation Area consists of rugged terrain made up of vast-relatively untouched open space. The area consists of several different vegetative communities including oak savannah grasslands, mixed hardwood and oak stands, shrubland, wetland …

A Baseline For Downtown Transit-Oriented Development: Planning For Success In The Loyola Corridor, Peter Bennett

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in downtown areas is a distinct form of new development, creating walkable districts and 24-hour neighborhoods. A new streetcar on Loyola Avenue in the New Orleans Central Business District was planned to encourage new development in the area. By analyzing the current land uses and values, projections of future change predict over $500 million in added value. For this development to become a successful TOD, policies must encourage uses that generate ridership and increase walkability. Although the Loyola corridor has many historic attributes of a transit-oriented downtown, it currently lacks neighborhood identity. The new development associated with …

Executive Summary, Cumberland County Foodshed Assessment, Report 1, Barbara Ives

Local Food Systems

Like everyone else in these troubled economic times, Mainers are looking for ways to create jobs that will remain relevant and vital in a global economy, that cannot be outsourced, and that will regenerate rather than exploit our natural resources.

A growing number of people believe that a food system rooted in local farms, fisheries, and food production and distribution enterprises can strengthen Maine’s economy and its communities’ health, thereby increasing revenue and decreasing an expense that is crippling government agencies and individuals alike – healthcare. Business people who want to make a living related to food, and public and …

Racetrack Engineered Surface Project Initial Study And Mitigated Negative Declaration, Christina M. Keller

Master's Theses

The Professional Project addressed here is an Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration for a project proposed by the staff of the Del Mar Fairgrounds pursuant to legal mandate by the State of California Horse Racing Board.

The “Project” subject to documentation under CEQA consisted of removal of the top seven inches of the existing dirt surface on the Del Mar Fairgrounds horse racing track and temporary storage of the material on the practice track infield; installation of a new drainage system, rock filtration system, permeable asphalt layers, and seven inches of engineered surface material; widening of the track in the northeast …