Environmental Design Commons^™

Reimagining The Laguna Lake Driving Range, Audrey Bonifacio, Jessica Rice

City and Regional Planning

The Laguna Lake Municipal Golf Course is located in San Luis Obispo, California, and is operated by the city. Recently, the community, city staff, and the City Council have begun a conversation regarding the use of the golf course. To explore the different uses, this senior project presents four alternative developments for a selected area of the golf course. These four uses include enhancing the existing driving range, a sports facility, a children’s center, and a senior living community. To assess these alternatives, the project explores current urban planning theories, development trends, and case studies for each use. Through this …

Childhood Through Motion: Reimagining Everyday Mobility Corridors For Learning, Independence, And Exploration, Olivia Liljegren

City and Regional Planning

This project proposes the Childhood Through Motion (CTM) Framework, which reimagines how everyday mobility corridors can support children’s development through repeated engagement with integrated interventions along key neighborhood routes. Building on existing approaches such as Safe Routes to School and Playful Learning Landscapes, the framework integrates mobility, play, learning, and social interaction into a connected system of corridors and nodes distributed throughout a neighborhood street network. Rather than treating mobility, play, and learning as separate, the framework explores how developmental opportunities can be integrated into the public spaces children use every day.

The framework is organized through five guiding principles …

Urban Agriculture Technical Advisory, Katherine Rose Ivanjack, Kylie J. Preciado

City and Regional Planning

This project serves as a senior capstone, aimed at exploring the potential of urban agriculture to address critical challenges in sustainability, food security, and community development within California cities. This project highlights practical and innovative approaches to urban farming that can be adopted or adapted to suit the unique needs of urban areas across the state.

Coastal Collective: A Cannery Row Concept Plan, Margo Ezcurra

City and Regional Planning

This concept plan proposes preliminary design and implementation measures to redevelop an area which holds potential to serve as an activated southern entrance to Cannery Row. This project provides an analysis of the existing conditions and subsequently offers a strategy to transform this site into the Coastal Collective, a community-oriented mixed-use development that showcases the area’s history, natural environment, and local residents and businesses. This strategy consists of preliminary design ideas supported by implementation goals, policies, and programs that establish a framework for future redevelopment of this significant, historic waterfront area.

From Greens To General Plans: Reinventing Abandoned Golf Courses, Chloe Carolyn Partain

City and Regional Planning

This paper examines three case studies from different areas of the western United States to analyze the challenges and opportunities associated with redeveloping underutilized or abandoned golf courses. By examining how different communities from across the region have approached this process, this study aims to inform city planners, developers, policymakers, and other stakeholders about the intricacies and potential pitfalls of this process. It concludes with a list of necessary considerations for the redevelopment of any golf course and recommends best practices to follow throughout the process of redevelopment.

Planning, Preserving, And Increasing Accessibility: A Reflection On Going “Car-Free”, Abigail J. Weizer

City and Regional Planning

This paper studies the accessibility of car-free areas to those with mobility impairments by examining three car-free and car-lite experiments in California. Whether slowly converted to car-free with long-term, careful planning, or expeditiously changed to car-free during the COVID-19 pandemic, these three car-free experiments show the shortcomings of planning for accessibility in car-free spaces, and how instead of improving accessibility, current planning practice often hinders it. This paper offers a deep-dive into the drawbacks and benefits of going car-free and the ethical and legal reasons why urban planners, designers, and policymakers must consider the accessibility of a space before planning …

Feasibility Report On Water Recycling And The Housing Crisis, Tally A. Perry

City and Regional Planning

The western United States is experiencing increasing population, a housing shortage, and a drought. These challenges demand creative and unprecedented changes to development. Water recycling is slowly emerging as a viable solution for developers, home owners, and cities as a way to continue much-needed housing development while mitigating unnecessary water depletion. With all change, policy, feasibility, and awareness can be the largest influencers. Drought-ridden western-American states require additional and revised regulatory requirements to promote recycled water in new development. Currently, water reuse is largely used for agricultural and industrial purposes. To motivate and encourage housing development, water recycling needs to …

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 …

An Analysis And Application Of Pedestrian Streets, Ellie Krantz, Austin Lucero

City and Regional Planning

The goal of this project is to closely examine the conversion of traditional roads into pedestrian streets. By studying two examples, we will create an understanding of why cities do this, how they implement pedestrian streets, what results pedestrian streets bring, and what makes a successful conversion project.

The second part of this project is to implement the key takeaways of the research phase into a conceptual design of a similar project for San Luis Obispo. This design based phase will consider the entire scope of the project, detailing project location selection, implementation, and recommendations.

City Of San Luis Obispo Creek Walk Phase Iii, Ryan Thomas Anderson, Peyton Marie Ratto

City and Regional Planning

The following project includes a detailed narrative of project components and conceptual designs for the proposed City of San Luis Obispo (SLO) Creek Walk Phase III. The “project area” includes San Luis Obispo Creek and adjacent land uses/parcels from the Nipomo Street Bridge to the Marsh Street Bridge. This project is relevant because the City has interest in developing Phase III as an extension from the current walkway that begins at Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. In order to ensure consistency with City goals and policies, various City documents were reviewed, including the Downtown Concept Plan. Our progress was …

Oceanside Transit Center Transit-Oriented Development (Otc Tod): Revisioning North San Diego's County Transit Hub, Chad Johnston

City and Regional Planning

Many California coastal communities lack a supply of housing, produce high levels of greenhouse gas emissions by daily auto commuters but have existing local and commuter rail stations with large fields of parking surrounding it. Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) integrates the building of housing, retail, office, and public space together focused around transit stations. This infill of development locates people within comfortable walking distance, usually within a quarter-mile, of a public trail transit station reducing automobile dependence for local trips or commuting for work.

The Oceanside Transit Center (OTC) is a major railway interchange, serving as a gateway to the San …

Outdoor Learning Environments, Elizabeth Farin

City and Regional Planning

Outdoor Learning Environments have the ability to enhance the campus socially, educationally, psychologically, and environmentally. They can provide a defined, outdoor environment that students feel comfortable using and learning in. Outdoor Learning Environments create the space and opportunity to bring individuals and professors together to work on an interdisciplinary project. These spaces provide an area for students to relax and rewind during a stressful day. Outdoor Learning Environments have an enormous potential to achieve University-wide social and learning objectives.

This project examines the potential for Outdoor Learning on University campuses. Through analyzing existing outdoor spaces both at Cal Poly and …

Potential Of Existing And Proposed Bicycle Facilities To Link Multiple Origin And Destination Needs For Non-Motorized Travel In San Luis Obispo, Sheridan Nansen

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of linking multiple origins and destinations for efficient non-motorized travel in San Luis Obispo, California. The city currently has seventy-five miles of bicycle infrastructure with the intention to add thirty-five more miles to create a more functional bicycle network and foster an increase in bicycle trips taken.

Many cities in the United States are following their European counterparts in the push towards more sustainable forms of transportation by promoting bicycling, walking, and the use of public transit. Recently, we have seen an increase in both local and national legislative efforts …

Bike And Pedestrian Safety Planning: Excelsior/Outer Mission District, Alexandra Lee-Gardner

City and Regional Planning

San Francisco’s Outer Mission and Excelsior districts host a vibrant community of small business owners and residents from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. The neighborhood is known for its diversity and sense of community. However, lack of adequate infrastructure and high-speed roadways has created great safety concerns within the community. In the last five years, the Excelsior/Outer Mission area had 828 collisions, nine of which were fatal (Transbase, n.d.). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has identified nearly 14 miles of streets in the project area that are on the City’s high injury network, meaning collisions there are highly …

Placemaking & Augmented Reality: A Theoretical Exploration, Erick Sebastian Gomez

City and Regional Planning

Augmented reality is a technology that has the potential to greatly impact current approaches placemaking. Place is an abstract term that refers to the ability of a physical space to have a deeper, more subjective level of meaning for an individual or group of people. Traditional placemaking strategies can impact physical space but their adaptability is often limited by cultural changes or local needs. Augmented reality is a reactive technology through which people are able to manipulate their environments to more closely reflect personal values and communicate ideas. This paper explores current trends and potential applications of augmented reality in …

Design Guidelines For Activating Outdoor Spaces Of University Campuses, Torina Wilson

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Caltrans District 5 Bicycle Facility Inventory On Sr 1, Robert Etter

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Urban Design Vision: The Fremont Hub, Megan Kristine Miller

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Bicycle Planning In European Cities And Its Applicability To American Cities, Amy Gunn

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

A Model For Sustainable Living In Guanajuato, Mexico, Melina Smith

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Planning For A Community Wildfire Protection Plan In San Luis Obispo County, Justin Sauder

City and Regional Planning

San Luis Obispo County has a long history of wildfires and can be expected every fire season. Agencies providing fire protection do an excellent job at reducing the risk to loss of life, property, and natural resources in the area, but there is always room for improvement. California in general is experiencing increasingly longer, hotter, and drier fire seasons due to climate change, and San Luis Obispo County is no exception. As the population increases urban development is pushed to the outer limits of city boundaries where it often conflicts with forests in an area called the wildland urban interface. …

Assessing Vulnerability To Extreme Heat In San Luis Obispo County, Julia Isabella Cannata

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Walkability On Home Values: Findings From Neighborhoods In Three Bay Area Citites, Jonathan Turner

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Urban Design Vision For The Vista Del Sol Development, Gustavo Castro

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

The Chorro Valley Trail From Cal Poly To Cuesta College, Nichole M. Garner

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Corridor Revitalization Program, Alan Ayon, Miriam Arias

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Accessory Dwelling Units In College Towns: An Innovative Option To Increase Housing Supply For Students And Seniors, Emily Clare Foley

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

The Green Factor, Hillary Tung

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

3d Digital Modeling For Urban Design + Planning, Emmanuel Velazco

City and Regional Planning

Cities throughout the country face a number of challenges in dealing with the changing development needs of the 21st century. In urban planning, the fusion of social, environmental, political, economic, and functional considerations are required. Today, local, state, and federal governments are experiencing an economic downturn, making resources scarce to plan for smarter development, attain greater public interest, and economic revival.

The primary objective of this project is to provide innovative solutions in city and regional planning using software applications, such as Google SketchUp, that enable assessment of various urban design projects. A second objective was to create a 3D …