Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Claude A. Keithley / This report examines what planners can do to increase healthy lifestyles within their communities by presenting development recommendations. In the beginning of the twentieth century the discipline of city planning was dedicated to stopping the spread of infectious diseases through improved sanitation and housing. Over the years planning separated from its origins in public health. Mobility and increased technology began to drive community development and planning, and our society created environments that devalue healthy lifestyles. A wide array of activities contribute to healthy lifestyles. Five characteristics have been shown to be the most promising in promoting health. They are regular physical activity, maintaining a healthy weight, moderate alcohol consumption, not smoking, and a prudent diet. To achieve its purpose this report will explore the prevalence of adhering to healthy lifestyle characteristics and recount a brief history of community development that has contributed to decreased healthy lifestyle adherence. Through the review of past destructive practices and current initiatives to create healthy communities, a guide to community development for healthy lifestyles is laid out. This guide will allow communities to determine their location in the process of becoming a health conscious community and give them recommendations about what they can do to promote health.

Master of Arts / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Lee R. Skabelund / This report presents one approach for increasing understanding, appreciation and protection of watersheds by individuals living within the urban-to-rural lands interface. The purpose of the study is to provide guidance to developing and implementing a driving tour of environmentally sensitive land around Clinton Lake and the Upper Wakarusa Watershed (UWW). Although the tour is particular to the UWW, the principles will be useful to planners and watershed advocates working to promote water quality improvement in other geographic areas. A first step in increasing community involvement to restore and protect watersheds is developing a broader public understanding of what watersheds are and their integral part in daily life. By taking a driving tour (literally or virtually), participants can see firsthand how a watershed functions and the values it provides to people and ecosystems. Two key ingredients in the planning process are public participation and clearly defined goals. Public participation begins with awareness of an issue that impacts lives. The first step in engaging the public is to develop a framework for making residents aware that watersheds are a critical part of their environment and the health of their community. The driving tour of the Upper Wakarusa Watershed should help residents and visitors experience a “sense of place” related to the watershed by achieving three over-arching goals: Develop meaningful themes that engage the residents and visitors in learning about watersheds and give insight to their relationships with the watershed. Introduce concepts that are relevant to the lives of residents and visitors and their understanding of a watershed. Generate a stronger “sense of place” as it relates to the Upper Wakarusa watershed. The driving tour in this report has been designed to serve as a broad blueprint for future implementation. The route was devised to take advantage of area resources, especially those on public land, while adhering to guidelines proven successful in promoting rural areas such as the Flint Hills and Cheyenne Bottoms. The actual implementation of the Upper Wakarusa Watershed Driving Tour is expected to be led by local coalitions, and the precise route should be adjusted as necessary.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Larry L. Lawhon / Affordable housing is an important component of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) because it provides lower income households the option to live an automobile-free lifestyle. A TOD, for this research, can be defined as a development located next to a transit line which provides small-scaled amenities and pedestrian activities. It also integrates a mix of uses, such as residential, retail, and public uses. This report focuses on the residential portion of TOD by identifying the importance of affordable housing in Transit-Oriented Development. In order to explore affordable housing in TOD, a case study was conducted of an existing TOD in the Denver metropolitan region. This TOD, known as the CityCenter Englewood TOD, is specifically located in Englewood, Colorado. This report explores the policy decisions that Englewood made when deciding not to integrate affordable housing provisions into the development. The affordable housing situation in Englewood is rather complicated. A review of census data suggests that affordable housing is needed in the community, while community officials state that Englewood is contextually affordable compared to the Denver metropolitan region. The conclusion of this report identifies the characteristics of the Englewood community that portray little tangible need for additional affordable housing units in the year 2010. However, according to the “Best Practices” Study of this report, other TOD communities do show various levels of tangible need for a mixed-income environment.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Timothy D. Keane / Many small Midwestern towns established near a river thrived on industry and the transport of goods up and down the waterway. Unfortunately, industrial riverfronts that have acted as the heart of their communities have seen tremendous flux as time has progressed. In the past half century the economic activity of industrial riverfronts declined as more goods can be shipped via interstate highways and as factories are closed and relocated. These vacant factories leave behind contaminated brownfield sites which discourage reinvestment and promote greenfield development on a city’s periphery in agricultural lands. Citizens have turned their backs on a history and heritage from which the first cornerstones of their communities were laid. A void results as industry begins to fade from the riverfront and a town loses its connection to the river. Put simply, we have lost our riverfronts. The Riverfront Found Master Plan for Quincy, Illinois integrates the different uses of the riverfront, weaving together the existing industrial, recreational, and natural fabrics that line the Mississippi River. Design concepts strive to create a dynamic atmosphere to encourage a healthy lifestyle environment and destinations with year-round interest. Enjoyable and memorable experiences of Quincy’s riverfront encourage users to return as the negative community perceptions of the Mississippi River are reversed. Planning is inwardly focused to combat sprawl of the urban fabric. Decision-making remains sensitive to floodplain ecology and mindful of flood occurrence. Conservation is an important design response concerning riverfronts and requires understanding an intricate system regionally and locally. Education ties both conservation and site experience together as users remember how their city and culture are embedded in ecology. Three case studies identify key concepts to inform the project at later stages. A site inventory and analysis spanning three scales, regional, city, and site uncovers history and processes. The programming phase addresses proposed elements to address the concepts, ideas, and problems identified in previous steps. A final master plan presents the proposed program elements within context of the site to create a functional and dynamic riverfront for the citizens of Quincy.

Master of Science / Department of Architecture / David R. Seamon / This thesis presents a redesign of Kansas City’s downtown Government District, making use of the conceptual approach provided by Responsive Environments (1985), a manual for urban design written by architects Ian Bentley and Alan Alcock, urban designers Sue McGlynn and Graham Smith, and landscape architect Paul Murrain. “Responsive environments” are those urban places, the physical settings of which maximize usability and social value by offering a wide range of day-to-day user choices within close proximity. The authors of Responsive Environments identify seven hierarchical qualities—permeability, variety, legibility, robustness, visual appropriateness, richness, and personalization—that are said to be vital in creating responsive environments within the city. Through a literature review and critique, chapters 1 and 2 of the thesis overview Responsive Environments in terms of several major theorists of urban place making, including urban theorist Bill Hillier (1984), urban critic Jane Jacobs (1961), and urban designer William Whyte (1980). In turn, chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 investigate the practicability of Responsive Environments as an urban design approach by applying its three larger-scale qualities of permeability, variety, and legibility to the Government District, an existing urban area in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, presently underdeveloped in terms of environmental responsiveness and a strong sense of urban place. As a means to identify strengths and weaknesses of Responsive Environments, the last chapter of the thesis critiques the resulting Government District design. The thesis concludes that Responsive Environments is a valuable design approach that offers much for strengthening the quality of urban life and urban sustainability.

This thesis investigates the relationship between access to public gathering spaces and self-reported health with indicators of community life as the intervening variables. This study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between the access to public space and self-rated health status in multicultural communities. A survey of 785 randomly-selected households was conducted across four low-income Toronto neighbourhoods. The investigation is framed by the 'production of healthy public space' model, which conceptualizes the pathways between the lived experience of space and health as impacting an individual’s likelihood of establishing place attachment. The results support the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the lived dimension of space and health. Mental health appears to be the outcome most affected by indicators of place attachment. Several of the aforementioned relationships were found more commonly in the densest of the four neighbourhoods and variations were found between foreign- and Canadian-born subpopulations.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional and Community Planning / Jason Brody / This report acts as an independent study which contributes to the author’s participation in the 2012-2013 Kansas City Design Center planning and urban design studio. The project focuses on Independence Avenue in Kansas City, MO, the commercial and transportation backbone of seven neighborhoods, collectively known as Northeast Kansas City. Residents of these neighborhoods place great value in the “diversity” which exists in their neighborhoods, and have made it clear that this should be encouraged as a major part of the Northeast’s identity. This inspired the author to pursue a deeper understanding of the idea of diverse neighborhoods, how they fit into the “sustainable development” consciousness, and ultimately how one can plan and design for neighborhood diversity. The resulting study consisted of two levels of analysis. First, analyzing the mixture of age, sex, household type, race, and income level at the regional, city, and neighborhood scale, in order to understand what social diversity means in the Kansas City context, and define how diverse Northeast Kansas City neighborhoods are. The second was an analysis of conditions in the built environment. Using the Scarritt Renaissance and Lykins neighborhoods, and a common commercial district/social seam between the two as a case study, the author intended to analyze how successful or unsuccessful the typical Northeast neighborhood is at encouraging diverse populations. Ultimately, these analyses yielded two main conclusions. The first is that neighborhood diversity means drastically different things depending on how you define and measure the term. The second is the notion that social seam commercial districts are a unique spatial typology, which requires special design consideration, and can be most catalytic to setting the tone for future growth. Finally, the author concludes with the idea that one cannot necessarily plan or design for diverse neighborhoods, but they can do so in ways which empower diversity, and be conducive to things which support diverse neighborhoods. However, the built environment only makes up a portion of the things which influence neighborhood diversity, requiring an involved and invested community who values social diversity in their neighborhood.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Howard Hahn / Since 2005, local jurisdictions have been required to prepare hazard mitigation plans to maintain eligibility for a number of disaster-related federal grant programs. All types of communities prepare these plans, high-risk coastal communities and low-risk Great Plains communities alike. Research, both current and historic, has found hazard mitigation plans have a number of weaknesses, ranging from weak fact bases to weak mitigation actions. The purpose of this study is to explore how this research can be used to prioritize enhancements to hazard mitigation plans in growing rural counties, referred to as urbanizing rural communities, which have limited staff and resources. Specifically, Pottawatomie County, Kansas was the focus of this study. In order to prioritize enhancements, the current issues and challenges related to hazard mitigation were explored through interviews and assessing the quality of hazard mitigation plan documents. Based on the outcome of this initial analysis, plans of comparable communities were explored to identify a range of policies and methods that could be used by Pottawatomie County. Finally, these policies and methods will be prioritized based on the level of enhancement and resource requirements. This study found two possible directions for plan improvements: a combined response/mitigation planning process for a single county and strategies for participation within a regional planning context. The interviews with Pottawatomie County staff reveal an opportunity to combine phases of the emergency management cycle to boost interest and participation. The interviews also revealed a statewide shift to a regional planning process. This shift, while presenting new opportunities, will require Pottawatomie County staff to be more active and engaged to ensure the resulting regional plan will be beneficial to the county.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Hyung-Jin Kim / What makes a city a place people love and want to live is the essence of livability. Livable cities are places where people can delight in a high quality of life. College towns are great places to live because their universities function as a cultural wealth and an economic anchor for the city. Using Manhattan, KS and Kansas State University (KSU) as a case study, this study utilizes a survey as an instrument to investigate the possible correlations and patterns between the perceived quality of life of permanent residents of college towns and their degree of interaction with their university’s campus. Using statistical analyses of this data, this study explores the relationships between a higher quality of life in Manhattan and a higher interaction with KSU. As well, it seeks to find what aspects of university interaction have the most impact on quality of life, if there are any shortfalls in quality of life in Manhattan, and if the university can play a role in the strategy to mitigate for these shortfalls. In this, town-gown relationships give insight to creating more livable cities as a whole.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional & Community Planning / Mary Catherine (Katie) Kingery-Page / There is currently a dearth of planning literature concerning participatory processes relative to children, particularly in the planning and design of schoolyard or playground spaces. Through a local, place-based, participatory approach emphasizing local knowledge and active listening, this master's report seeks to confirm the value of children in the planning and design of a schoolyard space. The study took place at the Northview Elementary School in Manhattan, KS comprising students as primary stakeholders, teachers/administrative staff as secondary stakeholders and parents as tertiary stakeholders. Additionally, the study employed Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s childhood cognitive development theories and five operational play categories in guiding the development of a learning landscape design aimed at supporting and maximizing cognitive development, physical activity and recreation. The report concludes with a set of five (5) recommendations designed to equip prospective researchers in undertaking participatory processes within school settings. The implication of this study is that sustained stakeholder engagement during planning and design processes of schoolyards will result in spaces reflective of the target audience.