Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Slides: Ag Water Sharing: Legal Challenges And Considerations, Peter D. Nichols

Innovations in Managing Western Water: New Approaches for Balancing Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes (Martz Summer Conference, June 11-12)

Presenter: Peter D. Nichols, Esq., Partner, Berg, Hill, Greenleaf and Ruscitti, Boulder, CO

25 slides

Making South Downtown Portland, Artur Queiroz, Beth Gilden, Flávia Martins, Hannah Six, John Todoroff, Linn Davis, Maria Schafaschek, Nely Silveira, Sayonara Batista, Taissa Sanccao

Urban Design Workshop

Principals that guided the project:

(1) Create connection between existing activity centers.

• Education: Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and Portland State University
• Parks: Halpern Sequence, Park Blocks, and Waterfront
• Transit centers: Orange Line, Yellow Line, Streetcar and Bus Connection

(2) Add to multi-use nature of area to provide a 24 hr neighborhood environment. Additional residential Development - catering to late night and residence not just office crowd.

(3) Improve pedestrian experience: Increase safety by making traffic changes, add wayfinding and dampen freeway noise.

(4) Design for a diversity of ages

(5) Activate existing/underutilized "dead" …

Renting Trouble: Current Government Policy Of Relying On The Private Rented Sector To Deliver Social Housing Is Unlikely To Succeed, Tom Dunne

Reports

A review of the history of housing in Ireland shows that owner occupancy and social housing were policy choices by successive governments. Owner occupancy was heavily supported through a system of grants and tax breaks and social housing was directly provided through local authorities at subsidised rents. In recent years policy has changed and tenure neutrality is now guiding the government’s attitude to housing. This is a significant change which has not been sufficiently discussed and has consequences which are not appreciated. Relying on the market to provide rental housing for people on low incomes and who may be in …

Getting Green To Work In The Northwest Industrial District, Stefan Heisler, Sara Ivey, Alexis Kelso, Ryu Sakuma, John Dornoff, Dianne Yee

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Forest Park and its surrounding watershed experience measurable environmental problems such as urban heat island impacts, increased storm water runoff containing pollutants, fragmentations of habitat connectivity due to their proximities to high-impact land uses, poor air quality, absence of public space, and lack of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. Getting Green to Work in the Northwest Industrial District identifies strategies to address environmental issues that affect local human and environmental health in the Northwest Indusrial District, Forest Park and the Willamette River, while benefiting local businesses workers and firms. Getting Green to Work explores voluntary approaches to address local environmental problems …

North Portland Greenway Trail Strategic Plan, Lewis Kelley, James Dubois, Savannah Erzen, Gena Gastaldi, Lisa Harrison, Nick Stoll

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Grow Willamette Greenway was initiated through a partnership between npGreenway and Willamette Planning Studio, a group of six Portland State University graduate students in the Masters of Urban and Regional Planning program. Through a four month collaborative process of community engagement and analysis, including health impacts, economic development, and traffic demand modeling, a series of findings and recommendations were developed. The process built upon previous work undertaken by npGreenway, Metro, Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), Portland Parks and Recreation (PP&R), and other government agencies and community organizations to present a strategic action plan for npGreenway to pursue what moves the …

Fourth Plain Forward: Action Plan For Vancouver's Multicultural Business District, Mandia Gonzales, Jamin Kimmell, Eddie Montejo, Lauren Patton, Kate Rogers, Anthony Thompson

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Fourth Plain Forward is an action plan for Fourth Plain's multicultural business district, created in collaboration with the City of Vancouver, Washington. Fourth Plain's business district reflects the rich diversity of its surrounding communities, but the area faces significant economic challenges. To address these issues, the action plan builds on the economic development goals outlined in the 2007 Fourth Plain Corridor Subarea Plan, and aims to improve conditions along the corridor for both businesses and residents. Broadly, Fourth Plain Forward outlines strategies and actions to grow economic security and opportunity, and maintain the area's diversity.

This project was conducted under …

Urban Inspiration Can Come From Unlikely Sources: What Boston Can Learn From Cities In Transition Around The World, Andrew Tarsy

New England Journal of Public Policy

Boston is a city in transition, with power passing to a new mayor for the first time in a generation. The capital of New England should consider the examples of cities around the world in defining its next agenda. The urban centers that make up the Forum for Cities in Transition have all endured years of conflict and yet each continues to plan for a better future. Belfast, Nicosia, and Kaduna might not be role models for Boston; but three consensus points came out of the group’s recent summit: (1) it is hard to move forward without confronting the past; …

Tachomea: Infill Tools For A Happy City, Anaïs Mathez, Michael Cynkar, Hannah Silver, Nicholas Kobel

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The City of Tacoma has policies that both encourage the densification of neighborhoods through a broadened range of residential infill options and also protect the character of single-family housing patterns. However, recent residential development has illustrated the difficulty of achieving goals of compatibility and density simultaneously. How can development incorporate better design standards and placemaking practices that respond to a neighborhood’s unique character, while diversifying the housing stock to provide a greater variety of housing options?

Relating to the city’s anticipated population growth, as well as regional environmental and economic pressures, this report frames the discussion, analysis and recommendations around …

Green Loop Swpdx Concept Plan: Alignment And Design Treatment Recommendations For The Southwest Green Loop, Ashley Eaton, Brian Gunn, Jake Adams, Kate Washington, Mohd Meidiansyah

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Green Loop SWPDX project was conducted by five students in partnership with the Portland Bureau of Planning & Sustainability Urban Design Studio and Portland State University's Campus Planning Office. It explores potential alignments and design treatments for Portland's Green Loop, specifically with the southwest downtown quardrant of the Central City. The southwest quadrant of the Green Loop links the South Park Blocks to the non-automobile Tilikum Crossing bridge. The Green Loop SWPDX project explores both large and small-scale possibilities for creating a sense of safety and a place for cyclists and pedestrians in the Central City. This document reports …

Paalf People's Plan: East Portland Pilot, Todd Borkowitz, Lorrie Chang, Christine Corrales, Leslee Humphrey, D. H. Strongheart, Timothy Wood

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Recognizing the traumatic experience of being forced to move and losing community, this plan reflects the hopes of community members who seek to rebuild their lives in a new place. The East Portland Pilot Plan applies the urban planning practice of placemaking as a transformative intervention for addressing challenges and stabilizing the Black community in East Portland. This plan also emerges at a critical time, as existing city plans for East Portland indicate significant future public investment and development.

This plan has been written with a wide audience in mind. The material is relevant to homeowners, community activists, urban planners, …

Cathedral Waterfront Plan, Mathangi Murthy, Tabitha Boschetti, Michelle Anderson, Saumya Kini, Rosa Lehman, Violet Brown

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Cathedral Park Neighborhood Association anticipated the imminent development of 15-acres of waterfront property (the Steel Hammer Site) in the heart of their community and worked with the PSU MURP team to bolster the voice of the community through public engagement and thoughtful urban planning. The student team reached out to the neighbors, talked with shareholders, conducted site analysis, and developed a shared community vision for the Steel Hammer Site, which resulted the Cathedral Waterfront Plan that includes:

• Twelve community goals for future development
• Three scenarios demonstrating how development on the Steel Hammer Site could contribute to community priorities without …

Evaluation Of The Community Safety Initiative: Assignment Of Rapid Co-Ordinators, Matt Bowden

Reports

No abstract provided.

The Green Loop Swpdx Workshop Project, Brian Gunn, Kate Washington, Jake Adams, Ashley Eaton, Mohd Meidiansyah

PSU Transportation Seminars

The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability proposes the construction of the Green Loop, a 10-mile linear public open space proposed in the West Quadrant Plan update that will further link the east and west sides of the Central City. In addition to physically affirming both sides of the river as part of the Central City, the Green Loop is expected to create a second ring of pedestrian and bicycle access, much like the East Bank Esplanade and Tom McCall Waterfront Park, that will draw activity to retail further from the river.

The Green Loop addresses both the City of Portland’s …

Transforming A Historic Highway In Small Town Mosier Into A Vibrant Main Street, Amanda Davidowitz, Kaleidoscope Student Planners

PSU Transportation Seminars

Kaleidoscope Student Planners, a group of six students in the Master’s of Urban and Regional Planning program at Portland State University, are working with Mosier, Oregon’s City Council to develop the Slow Mo’ Main Street Concept Plan. The goal for the project is to develop conceptual designs and programmatic recommendations for historic Highway 30 (which runs through the town), to help ensure that Mosier’s Main Street reflects community priorities, supports a thriving downtown, and creates a safe and inviting corridor for people traveling on foot, by bike and by motor vehicle. During this seminar we will reflect on our process …

Dispatches From Chicago: Reporting On Immigrant Issues, Odette Yousef

Public Policy and Administration Lecture Series

Odette Yousef is the North Side Bureau reporter for WBEZ 91.5FM, Chicago’s NPR affiliate. She works in one of three urban community bureaus to extend Chicago Public Media’s coverage to people and places that may not always make it into mainstream news outlets. In particular, Odette focuses on issues relating to Chicago’s Asian-American populations, as well as many other minority populations that live in the city’s far North Side neighborhoods. Prior to coming to Chicago, Odette was a reporter with WABE FM in Atlanta, and worked at NPR in Washington, DC. She also co-hosts the television show My Chicago on …

New Fhwa Vmt Forecasts Implications For Local Planning, Andrew Mortensen

PSU Transportation Seminars

A summary of FHWA’s new national traffic trends assessment will be presented, including discussion of varied factors influencing forward-thinking forecasts. Examples of Oregon statewide vehicle miles travelled (VMT) and historic traffic trends from ATR stations in the Portland urban region and greater Willamette Valley will be highlighted. VMT, population and income data will be noted with implications on local transportation planning.

Development Of A Pedestrian Demand Estimation Tool: A Destination Choice Model, Christopher D. Muhs

PSU Transportation Seminars

There is growing support for improvements to the quality of the walking environment, including more investments to promote pedestrian travel. Planners, engineers, and others seek improved tools to estimate pedestrian demand that are sensitive to environmental and demographic factors at the appropriate scale in order to aid policy-relevant issues like air quality, public health, and smart allocation of infrastructure and other resources. Further, in the travel demand forecasting realm, tools of this kind are difficult to implement due to the use of spatial scales of analysis that are oriented towards motorized modes, vast data requirements, and computer processing limitations.

To …

Fishing For A Sustainable Future: Aquaponics As A Method Of Food Production, Richard Ramsundar

Student Theses 2015-Present

This thesis compares and explains the advantages aquaponics farming has over modern industrial intensive farming. Through a comparison natural capital usage, conservation, recycling and cost, the thesis advocates for the expansion of aquaponics usage in urban settings. The thesis also explains the history of intensive farming and aquaponics in America, the science of how aquaponics operates, the economic and environmental costs of modern intensive farming versus aquaponics farming, and the social implications of aquaponics. Lastly, I propose a policy that reallocates farm subsidies by modifying the Farm Bill. Then I propose policies that support creating a new standard of farm …

Mobility And Accessibility In Shrinking Cities, Joanna Ganning

TREC Project Briefs

A University of Utah researcher explores the synthesis of mobility- and accessibility-based transportation planning in the context of urban decay.

Community Characteristics Associated With Local Intergovernmental Cooperation., Sarin Adhikari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Metropolitan fragmentation is considered the root cause of inequality among local governments. Self-governing localities have the power to exercise zoning and land-use laws to lock up their resources, which gives them a competitive edge against their neighbors. Localities are unique in terms of their economic capacity, fiscal strength, geographic location, racial makeup of their residents and their income status. Such differences reflect into variation in preference for urban infrastructure and the capacity of local governments to provide preferred services at the lowest possible taxes and fees. Some scholars have suggested consolidating localities into large regional governments to overcome such inequalities. …

Making Streets Into Complete Streets, Marc Schlossberg, John Rowell

TREC Project Briefs

Researchers created a manual to aid planners in adopting complete streets policies and designs.

Travel Decisions & Their Implications For Urban Transportation: From Campus Transportation To Statewide Modeling, Gulsah Akar

PSU Transportation Seminars

The ability to forecast future transportation patterns under a particular land-use scenario or urban form is key to making informed decisions at the local and regional levels.

Although several researchers have explored the links between the built environment, socio-demographics and travel behavior, a consensus is not reached.

This talk highlights two recent projects. The first project focuses on individuals’ attitudes towards transportation, neighborhood characteristics and their effects on campus commuters’ transit use, and addresses the question whether attitudes, the built environment or a combination of both explains the resulting transit use better.

The second part presents the Regional Land Use …

2014 Transit Oriented Developments Survey, Jennifer Dill, Nathan Mcneil

TREC Final Reports

This report presents results from surveys of residents at several transit-oriented developments (TODs) in Portland, Hillsboro, Tigard, and unincorporated Clackamas County. The research complements our previous survey work for Metro done at eight TODs in 2010 and 11 TODs in 2007.

Negotiating The Neighborhood: The Role Of Neighborhood Associations In Urban Planning Processes, Lane K. Holden

Sociology Honors Projects

To promote collaborative urban planning, the United States Federal Government requires that city and regional governments consult communities affected by planning processes. Neighborhood associations were originally created to engage community members in local social justice issues in order to meet this mandate. Relying on these organizations raises questions about whether they fulfill their potential: what role do community members play in urban planning? Do neighborhood associations feel like they participate effectively in the urban planning process? How do these associations perceive the extent to which the government uses their input? To address these questions, this study examines perceptions of urban …

Using Multimodal Performance Measures To Prioritize Improvements On Us 101 In San Luis Obispo County, Jessica Berry

PSU Transportation Seminars

The US 101 Corridor Mobility Master Plan in San Luis Obispo was a two-year planning effort that evaluated the 70 mile corridor on 12 performance measures. This collaborative effort was led by the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG).

Performance based planning is becoming more important for agencies receiving State and Federal funding. Smaller, rural regional agencies will have to find ways to collect, report, and use performance metrics with limited resources. SLOCOG's first performance-based planning effort was the US 101 Corridor Mobility Master Plan, funded through a State grant.

Funding for this project came from a …

Culture Connects 20/20: A Cultural Plan For The Dayton, Ohio Region, Marc Goldring, Richard Stock, Jane Dockery

Community Development

In March of 2014, Culture Works contracted WolfBrown to provide the services of Marc Goldring, Associate Principal, to oversee aspects of developing a 10-year cultural plan for the Dayton Region. The planning team also included Dr. Richard Stock, Director, Business Research Group of the University of Dayton and Jane Dockery, APRI's Associate Director. This project grew out of earlier regional research, beginning in 2011, funded in part by the Dayton Foundation that included comprehensive market research about cultural attendance and a study of economic activity generated by the nonprofit cultural sector.

Where the practices of creativity help our young people …

Dash: The Portland Region's Next-Generation Activity-Based Model, Richard Walker

PSU Transportation Seminars

DASH is the next generation activity based model being developed by the Metro Research Center. Upon completion, it will be one of the most advanced in the nation. This model will be used extensively in estimating the activity and travel response of individuals to policies and infrastructure investments. Compared to past models, it will include enhanced consideration of the socio-economic roles of individuals, discrete temporal dynamics, and intra-household dependencies.

Geometric Design, Speed, And Safety, Richard J. Porter

PSU Transportation Seminars

In this seminar, Dr. Porter will explore the interactions of geometric design decisions, speed, and safety. A performance-based approach to this topic will be considered given the availability of several key documents, including the Highway Safety Manual and TRB's Modeling Operating Speed: Synthesis Report as well as a significant body of published research. A historical look at the design speed concept will show that while the design speed definition has changed on more than one occasion, the same basic but flawed philosophy that relates design speed to a “safe speed” is still reflected in supplemental guidance related to design speed …

Appalachian Festival Proposal, Timothy Rainer, Cassie Grate, Callen Thompson, Amy Gadd

Senior Year Experience Student Projects

A proposal to the city of Columbus to hold an Appalachian Festival in Goodale Park to increase awareness of Appalachian culture in the city.

The Sfpark Pilot: Using Data To Make Cities Better, Kathryn Doherty-Chapman

PSU Transportation Seminars

SFpark was a federally-funded pilot program of a new approach to managing parking in San Francisco. It utilized real time data to identify parking availability, and demand-responsive parking pricing to help make parking easier to find. Parking management is an invaluable transportation demand management tool and the SFpark pilot demonstrated how data can help cities make smarter decisions. Come hear about the pilot evaluation results from a former SFpark staffer and PSU alum.