Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional and Community Planning / Tim Keane / The City of Manhattan, Kansas has been subject to intense flooding in the last couple of years. Areas of the city, within the Wildcat Creek Watershed, have been adversely affected. The City of Manhattan and stakeholders from various walks of life are looking for solutions to alleviate flooding within the area. This Master’s Project looks into rainwater harvesting as one of the solutions to help reduce stormwater runoff and contribute to the alleviation of flooding within the Watershed. Rainwater harvesting is increasingly being recognized as an effective way to reduce stormwater runoff. The project explores the potential benefit of using a network of rainwater harvesting elements, namely rain barrels and cisterns supplemented by rain gardens and other infiltration methods to reduce runoff in the City of Manhattan, Kansas. To assess the benefit of using rainwater harvesting in the City, a neighborhood scale site was chosen and divided into land use types. Three phases were used to assess the impact and implementation of rainwater harvesting. Phase I calculates the volume of runoff generated from each land use type and how much of that runoff can be harvested from the rooftops. The values from the neighborhood scale analysis were then extrapolated to see the impact of rainwater harvesting on a larger scale. Phase II looks at the configuration of a rainwater harvesting system for the structures in each land use type and rainwater reuse options. Finally, Phase III looks at policies, regulations and incentives that can be employed by the City of Manhattan to help encourage rainwater harvesting. This Master’s project seeks to educate the City and its residents about the benefits of rainwater harvesting as a stormwater management tool and provide steps towards potentially using rainwater harvesting as a way to reduce runoff, and help alleviate flooding in the Wildcat Creek Watershed.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jason Brody / The design of a transit-oriented development (TOD) is a major concern with regards to its functionality and prospects for success. The Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City, Missouri, home of two professional sports venues, has a unique location on a proposed transit corridor, the Rock Island. This corridor is planned to run between downtown Kansas City and suburban Lee's Summit. Therefore, the Truman Sports Complex site is a natural choice for a TOD. Building a TOD at the Truman Sports Complex will create a focal point on the Rock Island Corridor that connects Arrowhead and Kauffman Stadiums to downtown Kansas City and Lee's Summit via a regional transit system; bring together a diverse population through the creation of a walkable, mixed-use center located adjacent to the regionally known cultural institutions; and encourage new development around the junction of Interstates 70 and 435, a major transportation node in Kansas City, Missouri. This study, focusing on the design of such a project on this specific site, employs an extensive site analysis informing conceptual and specific planning ideas. It draws from a large body of literature and precedents, incorporating well established elements and principles into a new development that is both unprecedented in the Kansas City region and unique among TODs and sports-related districts. The main findings reveal the desirability of a strategy to develop on the existing parking surface of the Truman Sports Complex and reroute the Rock Island Corridor through the middle of the site so that it passes between the two stadiums. The final plan incorporates a mixed-use program, with retail, entertainment, offices, and apartments, into a variety of building types, including garden apartment buildings, low- to mid-rise mixed-use buildings, and high-rise towers, placed throughout the site in a compact, walkable grid pattern of streets. The significance of this project is that it can inform the Mid-America Regional Council, the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority, and other relevant stakeholders about the potential for developing on this site, and it demonstrates that a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly, large-scale transit-oriented development with a wide variety of program is both viable and desirable at the Truman Sports Complex.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jason Brody / Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) are an unprecedented typology in the Kansas City region, which predominately exhibits automobile-oriented development characteristics. The Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City, Missouri, home of two professional sports venues, has a unique location on a proposed transit corridor, the Rock Island, planned to run between downtown Kansas City and suburban Lee's Summit. Therefore, the site is a natural choice for a TOD. Building a TOD at the Truman Sports Complex will create a focal point on the Rock Island Corridor that connects Arrowhead and Kauffman Stadiums to downtown Kansas City and Lee's Summit via a regional transit system; bring together a diverse population through the creation of a walkable, mixed-use center located adjacent to the regionally known cultural institutions; and encourage new development around the junction of Interstates 70 and 435, a major transportation node in Kansas City, Missouri. This study employs extensive regional, market, and transportation analyses to inform specific planning and programming ideas. It draws from a large body of literature and precedents, incorporating well established elements and principles into a new development that is unique among TODs and sports-related districts. The project’s findings reveal that retail, multi-family housing, and office development at the Truman Sports Complex, supported by rail transit and strong tenants, would fill a void in regional business and population density close to downtown, and have the potential to be economically viable as a regional center through 2040. This research has also shown that in order to achieve the adequate density for pedestrian vitality on the site, high-rise development with limited single-family options is necessary. And perhaps the most important finding is that the rail line should be rerouted through the center of the site if Transit-Oriented Development at the Truman Sports Complex is pursued, in order to maximize the pedestrian-accessibility of land suitable to development and ensure that activity is concentrated around the stadiums. Overall, the significance of this project is that it can inform the Mid-America Regional Council, the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority, and other relevant stakeholders about the potential for developing on this site, and it demonstrates that a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly, large-scale transit-oriented development with a wide variety of program is both viable and desirable at the Truman Sports Complex.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Huston Gibson / Green infrastructure is an emerging concept which utilizes vegetated systems rather than traditional gray infrastructure for stormwater management. Conducting a literature review revealed the effectiveness of incentive based planning, the benefits of green infrastructure, information on bioswales and wetlands, stormwater management, Portland, and planning implementation strategies. Portland, Oregon, was selected as the area of study because of its widespread application of green infrastructure. Seeking to understand the reasoning behind the implementation of this atypical civic infrastructure, existing policies in the city’s Comprehensive Plan and the Zoning Code were analyzed. A policy analysis was conducted through itemizing the relevant policies in the Comprehensive Plan and the Zoning Code. Additionally, six in-depth phone interviews were conducted with Portland base planning-related professionals utilizing a snowball sampling technique to qualitatively understand the policies and circumstances that enabled the implementation of the city’s bioswales and wetlands. Findings were revealed through using the grounded theory methodology of coding and memoing to analyze the responses from the interviews. According to the policy itemization and phone interviews, the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code were not the reasons for Portland’s green infrastructure implementation, as hypothesized. Instead, green infrastructure was evident due to a need for compliance with the U.S Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act, and a resulting Stormwater Management Manual created by the city. Additionally, other reasons for implementation included strong leaders, active citizens, and incentives and grants. The city encountered several challenges with implementation including costs, a technical lack of information, and opposition from members against using green infrastructure, which were all ultimately overcome. Lessons learned from this case study of Portland point to four policy recommendations for other cities wanting to implement green infrastructure to help alleviate pollution and flooding: the need for design having a general Comprehensive Plan and detailed Stormwater Management Manual, experimentation to generate and monitor data, collaboration, and funding.

Master of Science / Department of Landscape Architecture / Regional and Community Planning / Stephanie A. Rolley / Community development and architecture approach the study of the city in distinct ways while sharing the purpose of creating or modifying the places we inhabit. Community development utilizes a scientific approach through the study of place-making, developing it from a socially based tradition, in other words, communities of place. Architecture considers the city like a work of art approaching the study from a physical perspective and emphasizing form. Architecture in this context is both an element of construction in space and the totality of the construction, the whole of a community’s modification of site. Developed from the point of view of an architect, this investigation challenges the distinction between architecture and community development exploring each perspective’s study of the city. Through a linear progression of framework diagrams, modified as the result of connecting concepts between the two disciplines, this investigation demonstrates how architecture and community development can achieve a unified framework for the study of the city.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Huston Gibson / In 2011, the United States Secretary of the Interior approved a proposal for expansion of the Harry S. Truman National Historic Landmark District in Independence, Missouri. The expansion of the historic district and the subsequent press resulting from the expansion was the inspiration for this report. The topic area of this report is historic preservation. Historic districts come with increased rules and regulations that can be seen as limiting a resident’s use of the properties within these districts. This report is concerned with the actual condition within a historic district with a central hypothesis that historic districts do have a positive association with property condition. In order to answer the research question, a multiple-case replication explanatory case study was performed using the original landmark district boundaries and two comparable nearby neighborhoods outside of the historic landmark district. The case study utilized secondary sources and in-field observations to analyze seven researchable factors about the parcels within the study areas. These factors were compared and contrasted during the cross case analysis. To further the understanding of the study area, a detailed profile of the City of Independence, Missouri, was produced. This profile looked at the historical development of the city, as well as economic and demographic statistics. The theoretical framework behind historic districts was also analyzed for this report. It is beneficial to look at this question in order to evaluate the potential implementation of a historic district that a planner may face in their municipality such as whether historic preservation regulations should be maintained, expanded, or eliminated or a historic district should be put in place. The report ends with a conclusionary chapter including recommendations, lessons for planning professionals, and ideas for further research.

Interest in school transportation has emerged in response to concern over the reduced levels of physical activity among children and youth. Recent Canadian policies emphasize population health intervention to encourage active travel among this younger population; urban planners and public health professionals have also highlighted the importance of the neighbourhood built environment. However, this “child-youth friendly” turn in policy and planning practice, particularly in Canada, has arguably occurred in advance of conclusive and generalizable knowledge about the relationship between the built environment and children’s travel. Within this context, this thesis is the first quantitative research that examines school transportation mode choice behaviour in the largest Canadian city, the City of Toronto. At first, a Behavioural Model of School Transportation was outlined. This exercise was followed by three empirical studies that explored school travel by children and youth, using travel data from Transportation Tomorrow Survey. The first of these three studies investigated the association between the built environment and the likelihood of walking or being driven, for journeys to and from school. The next study focused on a measurement issue; the potential influence of the modifiable areal unit problem on statistical modelling of the built environment - mode choice relationship was examined. Lastly, the potential influence of travel interactions among household members, the built environment, and unobservable spatial dependency (i.e., spatial auto-correlation), on school travel outcome of children and youth, were examined. The results indicated that caregiver availability may influence travel mode choice. The built environment near both home and school locations was associated with the likelihood of walking. In addition, the correlates of mode choice were different between children and youth, which perhaps, reflects a child’s cognitive development with age as an independent traveller. These findings suggest the need for neighbourhood-wide improvement in the built environment, and age-specific population health interventions at schools and in the communities.

A regional planning model is designed to facilitate coordinated land use and transportation planning, yet have a sufficiently simple structure to enable quick scenario turnaround. The model, TransPLUM, is built on two existing commercial software products: the Population and Land Use Model (PLUM); and a four-stage travel model implemented in a standard software package. Upon creating scenarios users are able to examine a host of results (zonal densities, origin-destination trip flows and travel times by mode, network link flows, etc) which may prompt modification of a reference land use plan and/or network plan. A zonal density-accessibility ratio is described: an index which identifies the relative utilization of a zone and which could serve as a coordinating feedback mechanism. The model was implemented for a pilot study area – the Winnipeg Capital Region. Development of a baseline scenario is discussed.

The Wilhelmsburg neighbourhood of Hamburg, Germany is characterized in local media as a problem neighbourhood. Many of its residents are racialized people struggling with low incomes, unemployment, and less formal education than average in the city as a whole, exemplifying what Razack (2002, p. 6) calls the “spatiality of the racial order in which we live.” Wilhelmsburg is also the focus of a massive urban planning and architectural project, the Internationale Bauaustellung (International Building Exhibition, or IBA) Hamburg 2007-2012, comprising 50 building projects that aim to transform the neighbourhood. In this thesis I use Foucauldian discourse analysis to explore IBA Hamburg’s public education materials, arguing that IBA Hamburg produces Wilhelmsburg and its residents as racialized, problematic, and in need of intervention to bring them into the future metropolis. Residents are targeted for integration through education, the effects of which are disciplinary and reproduce an unequal racial order of citizenship.

A regional planning model is designed to facilitate coordinated land use and transportation planning, yet have a sufficiently simple structure to enable quick scenario turnaround. The model, TransPLUM, is built on two existing commercial software products: the Population and Land Use Model (PLUM); and a four-stage travel model implemented in a standard software package. Upon creating scenarios users are able to examine a host of results (zonal densities, origin-destination trip flows and travel times by mode, network link flows, etc) which may prompt modification of a reference land use plan and/or network plan. A zonal density-accessibility ratio is described: an index which identifies the relative utilization of a zone and which could serve as a coordinating feedback mechanism. The model was implemented for a pilot study area – the Winnipeg Capital Region. Development of a baseline scenario is discussed.