Urban Studies Commons^™

Hillsboro: Bike And Pedestrian Implementation Recommended Strategy, Maddy Poehlein, Chris Corral, Sierra Willems, Ciara Williams, Lise Ferguson, Shane Seaman

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

This project presents a contextualized Bike and Pedestrian Implementation Strategy for the City of Hillsboro. The goal was to develop an actionable approach to expand and improve the City’s active transportation network. The strategy incorporates 23 criteria for project selection informed by existing conditions and the City’s priorities. Finally, the report culminates with a recommended implementation approach using two top scoring projects as examples.

Future Sandy: A Multimodal Transportation Plan, Afroza Hossain Misty, Anchal Erachankandy Cheruvari, Holly Querin, Katelyn Dendas, Symeon Walker

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Coming soon.

Gathering Gardens: Identifying Land For Community Gardens In Portland, Aswatha Raghunathasami, Gail Chastain, Alan De Anda-Hall, Tyler Smith, Elias Peters

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The project’s ultimate goal was to create at least 5 new community garden sites in the city of Portland for people to grow their own culturally relevant foods. To focus on parts of the city with some of the highest equity and food security needs, Agate chose to narrow the project scope to neighborhood areas located east of SE 57th Ave. Through direct engagement with the community, the team developed a site inventory for new potential community garden locations, as well as recommendations for optimal garden management, inclusion, and longevity. The community gardens are expected to be established by APANO …

82nd Avenue Tree Canopy Development, Amber Shackelford, Alvin Dimalanta, Caleb Susuras, Darby O'Brien, Eiji Toda

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The 82nd Avenue Tree Canopy Development project envisions a climate resilient corridor with abundant tree canopy on 82nd Avenue that contributes to a more sustainable Portland. It aims to develop a community-centered tree canopy plan to mitigate negative impacts caused by the current treeless streetscape. An evidence-based analysis will guide a tree planting framework along 82nd Avenue from I-84 to Foster-Powell. The final report will include policies supporting tree canopy development, strengthening the coalition's Portland Clean Energy Fund application, fostering collaboration between landowners and government agencies, and promoting tree preservation strategies.

East Portland Resilient Island Vision Plan, Blair Vallie, Mary Chase, Mirna Ali, Journie Gering, Rica Perez, Allan Wilson

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

To execute the East Portland Resilient Island Project, RIP City Planning has partnered with Portland’s Disaster Resilience and Recovery Action Group (DRRAG), an organization composed of representatives from Portland Bureaus of Development Services, Emergency Management, Environmental Services, Water, Planning and Sustainability, Transportation, and Parks & Recreation, as well as Portland State University’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions. DRRAG and RIP City Planning see this project as a prime opportunity to better understand and enhance the East Portland Community Center's role in fostering social connectivity and community-level disaster planning. Through abundant engagement efforts with local community groups and EPCC patrons, we aim …

Newberg Car Camping Initiative, Katie Carroll, Ryan Haight, Mary Hendricks, Scott Sharba, Anthony Tortorici, Paul Vickers

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Newberg housing market is experiencing the effects of a rapidly growing population on a relatively static housing stock. As competition for a limited supply of housing increases, low- and moderate-income households face the choice of absorbing rising housing costs or being priced out of their homes. This pressure has shown to result in increased rates of housing instability and houselessness in comparable communities across the state. Concerns around housing affordability prompted the Newberg City Council to adopt a 5-Year Housing Work Program in 2020. The 5-Year Housing Work Program consists of 49 housing-related directives intended to address a variety …

Vancouver Climate Adaptation Strategy, Jodi Mescher, Jenna Cangialosi, Jai Daniels, Trevor Luu, Ellen Mickle, Jamie Shalvey

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

This report is intended to be used internally by the City to guide climate adaptation policies in conjunction with the Climate Action Plan (see right). Key elements of this report include an analysis of the City’s climate change risks and populations most vulnerable to climate change, a review of best practices from other cities, insights from community engagement, and recommended strategies for supporting climate adaptation.

Legalizing Mobile Dwellings : A Guide For Expanding A Unique Affordable Housing Option In Your City, Grace Coffey, Scott Goodman, Matthew Hall, Sam Huck, Andrew Oliver

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

In much of the United States, housing options are limited while costs rise. The purpose of this report is to analyze the utility and functionality of mobile dwellings as an interim housing option to provide shelter and basic living needs on private residential lots. The policy context presented below for permitting mobile dwellings as part of the solution for growing issues of housing affordability focuses on Oregon and the Portland Metro region, but could be applicable in a variety of urban contexts.

While missing middle housing and ADUs have received much attention in recent years as a solution for addressing …

Envisioning An Equitable Central City, Tanja Olson, Caroline Crisp, Heidi Hinshaw, Sarah Pearlman, Laurel Priest, Jacob Storm

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

This Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) Workshop project working with our clients, City of Portland’s Bureau of Transportation and Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, advances the pursuit of equity within Portland’s Central City. Six MURP students acted as the consultant, under the name VF Planning, and with the guidance of Portland State University professors.

Portland’s Central City (CC) stretches from the West Hills to SE 12th Avenue and includes ten subdistricts: Lower Albina, Lloyd, and Central Eastside to the east and Pearl, Old Town/Chinatown, Goose Hollow, West End, Downtown, South Downtown/University, and South Waterfront to the west of …

Safety Interventions For Houseless Pedestrians, Peter Domine, Sean Doyle, Asif Haque, Angie Martínez Sulvarán, Nick Meusch, Meisha Whyte

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

In 2016, the City of Portland adopted the Vision Zero Action Plan with the goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries on Portland’s streets. The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) also makes a commitment in all of its plans to create a more equitable transportation system by prioritizing areas of the city with a disproportionate number of BIPOC community members and people with lower incomes, all of whom face a greater risk from traffic violence. To achieve its Vision Zero goals, the City and PBOT have undertaken a number of actions, including redesigning streets through traffic calming and traffic …

Parking Spaces To People Places, Shawn Canny, Natalie Knowles, Arva Hussain, Ann Le, Megan Doherty, Elizabeth Cox

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

In partnership with the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS), we sought to better understand how off-street parking space could accommodate economic activity in East Portland, the city’s most economically and racially diverse neighborhood. We focused on two different neighborhoods based on equity considerations and interest: the Rosewood and the Jade Districts. The goal was to better understand these areas with granularity but also to juxtapose them looking for similarities and differences that could guide our recommendations for using parking spaces and serving the community. This project was exploratory in nature. Our research questions and resulting deliverables were dynamic. …

Cascade 30: Historic Columbia River Highway Active Transportation Network Plan, Jeff Broderick, Timothy Dubois, Seth Healy, Henry Miller, Elisha Ransom, Justin Sherrill

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

While Apiary Planning Group created design concepts for the Oregon Department of Transportation, it should be noted these are only design concepts, not a final proposal. Funding to commence formal planning, engineering, and construction processes to implement these ideas has not been identified. No timeline to build any of these concepts has been established. Apiary Planning Group hopes these preliminary concepts will encourage and inspire jurisdictions, community groups, residents and businesses to work together to create a gateway to Hood River that honors the past while creating new, safer and accessible transportation opportunities in the future.

Clackamas Community College Shuttle Service And Access Plan, Shiori Azumaya, Ryan Mckinnon, Christina Winberry, Daisy Quinonez, Baxter Shandobil, Andre Lightsey-Walker

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Addressing transportation-related barriers is an essential part of Clackamas Community College's mission to make education more accessible. This plan provides a student-centered analysis of barriers that make it difficult for students with limited access to personal vehicles to access CCC’s Oregon City and Harmony campuses and identifies strategies to overcome them. The plan focuses on the CCC Xpress Shuttle, which sees over 26,500 trips per academic year, and on the compounded barriers facing students of color, low-income students, and students with disabilities.

Hamlet Futures: A Planning Framework For The Stafford Hamlet, Hannah Anderson, Heide Camarata, Hillary Harris, Kate Harbour, Sebrina Mortenson, Lydia Ness

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

After 30 years of land use battles, the Stafford Hamlet is at a turning point with its recent designation as an urban reserve in the Portland metro region. Our project asks: How can an all-volunteer advisory group in urban reserves best represent their community in regional planning?

This planning framework applies both a regional and equity lens to issues the Stafford Hamlet community will face as they navigate their future. It is designed for internal use by the Stafford Hamlet Board. The Project Overview is a scene-setting document intended to establish a shared understanding of recent history, demographics, and planning …

Roses From Concrete: A Walkability Plan For The Rosewood Neighborhood, Timothy Martinez, Shreya Jain, Matthew Cramer, Gwynn Mackellan, Sarah Bermudez, Walle Brown

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Roses from Concrete is a walkability plan for Portland Metro’s Rosewood neighborhood, created by Walk & Roll Consulting (W&R). This plan seeks to address the challenges of being a pedestrian - emphasizing youth and older adults, in the historically disinvested Rosewood neighborhood. This is accomplished by providing tools for analyzing existing infrastructural deficiencies, research-based recommendations for contextualized capital improvements, and compiled perspectives from local residents and professionals, in order to catalyze improving the lives of people who live, walk, and roll within the Rosewood neighborhood.

The Next Step: A Guide To Framing And Designing Permanent Supportive Housing For Caritas Housing, Julianne Reno, Ryan Dyar, N. Janine Gates, Joshua Ollinger, Hugo Hamblin-Agosto

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Caritas Housing of Oregon develops affordable housing for persons experiencing homelessness across the state. In January 2020, staff reached out to students in the Master of Urban and Regional Planning Program seeking planning assistance. Caritas wanted help planning for the needs of future residents and navigating what is frequently an emotionally-fraught and politically-charged development process. Upstream Planning worked with Caritas Housing to create resident-informed development criteria and design a framework for public communication. The Upstream Planning team created two documents, Development Criteria Guide and Public Communication Guide, that work towards the singular goal of helping Caritas develop permanent supportive housing …

Pathways To Planning: A Field Guide For Long Range Planning, Sally Bernstein, Adrienne Chaille, Jake Davis, Theresa Huang, Rhey Haggerty, Emily Scott

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

In 2017, the City of Monroe Planning Commission decided to update its Comprehensive Plan, last amended in 1986 and sought technical support. In addition to developing a Buildable Lands Inventory, Housing Needs Analysis, and Economic Assessment to support the comprehensive plan update process, Constellation Planning created a Field Guide as an interactive resource to be used for long range planning processes in Monroe, recognizing an opportunity to increase planning capacity.

The Field Guide includes educational appendices and usable worksheets that are intended for a diverse audience, including community members, commissioners, elected officials, city staff, planning partners, and consultants. Using a …

Ready Streets, Parkrose And Argay: Community Report, Kerry Aszklar, Jaye Cromwell, Bryan Nguyen, Joey Posada, Sabina Roan, Sophie Turnbull-Apell

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

How will people get around after a major earthquake? The Ready Streets project examines ways to create a strong, connected, and disaster-resilient mobility network in the Parkrose-Argay neighborhood of Portland, as well as replicable criteria for future neighborhoods. This is accomplished by examining the existing conditions of the area, working with community members to determine key destinations and priorities, and formulating recommendations to the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

The 1 page brochure for the public is available in the Additional Files below.

Cascadia Connect: Car-Free Access To The Outdoors, Kara Boden, Brandon Crawford, Matt Gray, Tony Lamb, Maricelith Valencia, John Whitman

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

As outdoor recreation areas in Oregon become more popular, increased auto-related congestion results in strained resources, environmental degradation, and diminished visitors’ experiences. This project proposes policies, strategies, and a variety of approaches to help transportation agencies and land managers facilitate car-free access to outdoor recreation areas. The plan also proposes approaches to increase access to recreation areas for transit-dependent visitors and under-represented communities who face significant barriers to access today. The Background Report includes data; interview, survey and focus group themes; site visit findings; and personal travel anecdotes.

The Lloyd Public Space Plan, Stuart Campbell, Àlvaro Caviedes, Ben Kahn, Raina Smith-Roller, Daniel Scheppke, Layne Wyse

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

This plan defines a set of recommended strategies for enhancing and activating public spaces in Lloyd that fall within three main themes: Safe Lloyd, Collective Lloyd, and Dynamic Lloyd. Implementing these actions will help realize a new vision of Lloyd: A vibrant community filled with activities and amenities for people at different times of the day, days of the week, and months of the year.

The report Measuring Public Space is included here as a supplemental file.

Umatilla Together, Amber Ayers, Belen Herrera, Carlos Callava, Nate Miller, Samuel Roberts, Laura Voss

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Umatilla Together sets the stage for great opportunities and seeks to inspire the residents of Umatilla to imagine what your city could be: a truly desirable place to live, work, learn, and play. Great places are not created by accident. They are the result of a vision, leadership, planning, public investment, unrelenting tenacity on the part of city champions, and strategic, meaningful partnerships.

Summary Umatilla Together plans in English and Spanish are included here as supplemental files.

St. Johns Housing Action Plan, Jai Singh, Julia Michel, Andres Oswill, Gabriel Rousseau, Ludwig Salzmann, Eric Rutledge

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The St. Johns Housing Action Plan (Action Plan) is designed to serve vulnerable St. Johns residents who are first to feel the impacts of increased housing costs and market pressures. It also intends to capture the support of residents who are not at risk of displacement but realize that the neighborhood change they fear is partly fueled by housing instability.

Brentwood-Darlington: Say Our Name! Neighborhood Assessment And Action Plan, Laura Combs, Samuel Garcia, Olivia Holden, Amanda Howell, Andrea Pastor, Shannon Williams

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

We wrote this plan with two audiences in mind: the city agencies that will be responsible for the large scale capital improvement projects; and engaged neighborhood residents who will be the steadfast advocates driving the direction of Brentwood-Darlington’s evolution. Our hope is the plan serves as a guide and a touchstone—a reminder of where the neighborhood has been, and an arrow pointing the way to the community’s shared vision of the future.

Rethink Nw 13th: Nw 13th Phased Action Plan, Cassandra Dobson, Courtney Simms, Dylan Johnstone, Geoff Gibson, Russ Doubleday, Santiago Mendez

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

NW 13th has its own set of challenges and opportunities that set it apart from other streets in the Portland Pearl District. This plan refocuses the historic district street around the pedestrian, placing all other modes as secondary to the experience and comfort of those walking on the street. Creating a plan for the pedestrian includes creating stronger bonds with the residents, businesses, and services that run the street’s entire length.

Two appendices: Community Engagement, and Existing Conditions, are included here as supplemental files.

Columbia View Park Expansion Plan: St. Helens, Oregon, Paul Gagliardi, Jonathan Morales, Takayuki Shigematsu, Deme Shor, Nathan Williams

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Vista Planning led public engagement surrounding a waterfront park expansion to help determine how the City should expand and renovate Columbia View Park. Between March and June 2017 Vista Planning ran engagement activities to learn about the local community, build interest around the park expansion and broader framework plan, and ultimately develop a preliminary site plan based on community input.

Lents Strong: Community Action Plan For A Livable, Affordable Neighborhood, Adam Brunelle, Drew Devitis, Carson Groecki, Claire Lust, Katie Sellin, John Todoroff

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

This is a community action and advocacy plan, created in consultation with neighborhood organizations and underrepresented communities most at risk for displacement. It focuses on actions where collaboration and community engagement will have the largest impacts. This is a plan for the next five years.

The overarching goals of the plan are to: Ensure the viability of Livable Lents. Livable Lents should remain a transparent, accountable, accessible, and holistic community engagement process that works collaboratively with nonprofits, city agencies, and community members. This plan serves in part as a collaboration strategy which integrates engagement on a wide range of projects …

Pathway 1000 Community Housing Plan, Kaitlin Berger, Anna Dearman, Beth Gilden, Karen Guillén-Chapman, Jasmine Rucker

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Housing prices in the City of Portland have risen dramatically in recent years, and low income and communities of color have been particularly hard hit in the northeast neighborhoods of the city. Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives has embarked on the development of 1000 affordable units over the next 10 years to help meet the needs of displaced residents. The Pathway 1000 Community Housing Plan sets out a strategy for providing those 1000 affordable, stable homes.

This project was conducted under the supervision of Marisa Zapata, Ethan Seltzer, Susam Hartnett, and Lisa Bates.

Washington County Affordable Housing Development Strategy, Mary Heberling, Hayley Mallen, Danelle Peterson, Jill Statz, David Tetrick

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Washington County Consolidated Housing Plan estimates a need for 14,000 housing units affordable to low and very low-income households. This project was developed to create an initial strategy for meeting that need. It provides 30 specific recommendations for Washington County to enable it to take action in the coming years. As the plan notes, there is no single action that will suffice. The County can make progress towards meeting the challenge posed by its affordable housing crisis by leveraging the proposed recommendations with each other.

The Value Of Place: Planning For Walkability In The Tigard Triangle, Wala Abuhejleh, Ray Atkinson, Linn Davis, Curtis Fisher

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The “Tigard Triangle” is bounded by highways and characterized by auto-oriented land uses in an incomplete street grid. It currently presents a challenge to the City of Tigard, whose vision is to be the most walkable community in the Pacific Northwest. The purpose of the Value of Place project is to develop a plan for improving walkability, safety, comfort, and aesthetics in the Tigard Triangle. In addition, this project was developed to test the application of the State of Place analytical tools to the planning and design challenges faced by the city.

This project was conducted under the supervision of …

Night Access Plan, Lea Anderson, David Backes, Abe Moland, Taylor Phillips, Rae-Leigh Stark, Shane Valle

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Oregon Health and Science University is a microcosm of the 24-hour city, and it’s essential that patients, employees, students and others have safe and convenient 24-hour access to its medical campuses. Access to and from the main campus is always complicated, but even more so at night. The Night Access Plan lays out a strategy to make getting to and from OHSU at night and early in the morning safer, more convenient, and affordable.

A video about this project may be viewed here.

This project was conducted under the supervision of Matthew Gebhardt, Susan Gibson-Hartnett, Ethan Seltzer and Marisa …