No description available.

No description available.

My thesis project is to create a conservation plan for the Reservoir Canyon Natural Reserve (RCNR) in San Luis Obispo, California. It is a professional project for the City of San Luis Obispo with the goal of eventual adoption by the City Council. The plan was motivated by City policy, which advises creating conservation plans for open spaces, and by a particular need to address management issues in RCNR that include plant and wildlife conservation, trail access, erosion, electrical utility easements, and other legal matters. The project consists of two main components: the conservation plan and a companion paper. The paper is an overview of the theory and best practices involved in conservation planning, and is meant to be complementary to the conservation plan. Therefore, discussions found in the paper are not present in the plan itself, but instead serve as background. The paper consists primarily of a literature review and my reflections on how the literature applies to the process of planning and managing RCNR. The Draft Reservoir Canyon Natural Reserve Conservation Plan, attached as an appendix, explains the conditions of the reserve, and describes the goals and management strategies the City will employ.

Greyfield Development in Vallejo, California: Opportunities, Constraints, and Alternatives is a Project that determined that the regulatory framework and presence of underutilized commercial land make Vallejo, California the ideal community to facilitate Greyfield Development. The Project reviewed existing literature, determining that there are a number of causes for the proliferation of Greyfields, revitalization practices, and communities that have facilitated redevelopment. The Background Report analyzed existing conditions and illustrated that Vallejo contains several policies and programs that call for the redevelopment of underutilized commercial land. The Greyfield Study identified Springstowne Center, CVS Center, and Meadows Plaza as shopping centers that exemplify signs of maturation and/or decline. The Greyfield Study determined that Meadows Plaza experienced the most decline out of the three shopping centers based on the amount of vacant square footage through fieldwork and document analysis. The Project presented three conceptual alternatives that could spur revitalization of Meadows Plaza: (1) Adaptive Reuse; (2) Residential Development; and (3) Mixed-Use and Residential Development. The Project concludes by recommending that Vallejo implement the Underutilized Commercial Land Conversion Program as outlined in the Housing Element of the Vallejo General Plan as a way to redevelop underperforming sites like Meadows Plaza and facilitate greater community revitalization.

ABSTRACT Downtown Revitalization Strategy Report for Glenrock, WY Mary E. Phillips The following project submitted for the Master of City and Regional Planning Professional Project is the Downtown Revitalization Strategy Report for Glenrock, WY completed November 25, 2009. At the onset of the project, the Town of Glenrock, WY was recognized as an Aspiring Main Street Community, and sought guidance to become a Certified Main Street Community. This Strategy Report was prepared to provide an implementation plan for revitalization of the downtown following the Main Street Approach, as well as for achievement of a Certified Main Street Community status by the year 2014. The project included an interactive process, directly involving key representatives and stakeholders in the community. This included a public workshop and on-site strategy sessions with Town staff and the Glenrock Downtown Development Committee. The Strategy Report includes a basic assessment of existing conditions in downtown Glenrock based on information gathered at these meetings. From this initial assessment, issues, goals and objectives for downtown were identified. An overall strategy was then developed, in accordance with the Main Street Approach, which outlines the plan of action for the downtown revitalization and Main Street certification. The implementation section of the plan then takes the identified actions and prioritizes them based on a 5-year implementation schedule. The development and prioritization of these actions was based on the following factors: Requirements for the Wyoming Main Street Community certification status Community goals for development in the downtown Feasibility of implementation of plan components Access to resources (of all types) for implementation Players in the implementation of the plan The result of this methodology was a plan that addressed the community’s needs, with an implementation program specifically tailored for the community’s available resources.

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Longstanding critical theories on place, memory, and identity can begin to address critical questions that residents, civic leaders, and designers are currently facing in twenty-first century small town America. The rapidity with which many rural communities are now transforming is unlike any previous phase of transition; due in large part to a vastly expanding globalized economy and mass culture. Anonymous, exchangeable environments are quickly becoming a standard condition for these cities, without much attention being paid by neither insiders nor outsiders alike. Often compounding the problem, poor existing social conditions within the aforementioned communities are not only being habitually unattended to, they are exacerbated by the parallel eradication of place. Due to these implications, a new direction in the modernization of rural communities across the nation is required to productively and responsibly plan for their future. A critical look at the roles of memory, place, and the built environment in the formation of collective and individual identities may be an integral step towards steering small towns down this path.

Building that can adapt and change to become useful for not only today’s society but for generations to come is one which elicits biological and evolutionary processes. In essence, the need for a transformative architecture that can sustain an active dialogue with its inhabitants, whose trend are in constant flux, results in a reunification between humanity and its time-sensitive, responsive natural habitat. The aim of thesis is to explore what makes people satisfy and comfortable and what factors make their living space and city livable, especially focusing on future housing needs. We can respond to the question of how is the space of the future going to look through several aspects. Housing has been a major challenge for the rising population during last decades, especially in developing countries. My approach will focus on social and interactional space alongside technological aspects. “Architecture as part of life” is a concept that I always carried with me: Buildings that adjust to life, to our needs, to our moods. They should adapt to our space, our functionalities and our needs that change continuously – and even to our sense of beauty, itself in continuous motion. Life satisfaction occurs most often when people are engaged in absorbing activities that cause them to forget themselves, lose track of time and stop worrying. "Flow" is the term that psychologist coined to describe this phenomenon. I believe that in age of technology and information we can’t ignore social interaction and communication. The concept of spaces of communication can be explained as in-between spaces in terms of architecture and semi-spaces in terms of urbanism. This thesis will argue that the spaces of communication, which are assumed to create social and environmental contact, can exist in any kind of urban environment. Architecture is based on the past and built in the present to take care of the future. It also mirrors the various aspect of our lives- social, economic, spiritual. Building cannot be separate from history, culture, economy, community and environment. The answer to the question of what will future generation need to live a happy life will vary from place to place. Happiness and satisfaction have universal factors but when we go in depth and explore individual societies and cities in terms of history, background, culture and social necessity we will understand differences that need to be respected. Generally, despite all differences in professional structures, economic conditions, geographical limitations, cultural, political and historical backgrounds suitable residential spaces in most developing countries face similar challenges. It appears that cities of today, and especially big cities all around the world, are all struggling with similar problems. Big cities should be built of communities which have a feature of small cores (neighborhoods) located in big city; that will benefit from the opportunities of big city. This concept is known as planetary perspective. My site, Tehran, was selected as a prototype city of a developing country. Developing countries are often more challenging because of their population growth that have huge impact on future environmental and economic issues. As urban reality shows, increasing population, demand for limited resources and depletion of natural environment strengthen this default that as urbanization gains pace, more people will find themselves living close together than ever before. The quality of urban living spaces will be even more significant in future. Architecture can change the way we think, we feel and embrace the future.

“Public participation” takes on various forms in the realm of local government planning. Many planners stand behind the ideal of involving community, but participation in practice often fails to achieve this objective. The primary vehicle for local government participation is the public hearing, which is a formalized process that often elicits one-way communication from planner to public. The nature of a hearing is to inform the public about development applications or policy changes, expose governing body decisions to the public, and elicit reactions from interested members of the public. Significant effort is taken daily by local planning departments to promote this transparent form of decision-making. The public can stay informed by reading legal ads in the newspaper, checking municipal websites, paying attention to public notice signs, attending hearings or simply receiving a hearing notice in their mailbox. However, staying informed and being involved are two completely different concepts. True involvement is two-way communication between public and planner. This study reports that the public hearing does not provide this necessary involvement. Alternative methods, such as workshops, are explored that break the formal mold of local government participation. Findings indicate that participation is more genuine in a loosely structured setting where face-to-face communication can occur between public and planner and among members of the public themselves. However, findings also suggest that genuine participation is not always appropriate given the intent of a public meeting. Many hearings are held at the end of the planning process for development applications requiring quasi-judicial decisions based on standards. The key is getting public input on earlier legislative decisions about policies that define the standards themselves. This study concludes with a toolkit of techniques practitioners can use to enhance public participation in planning, and observations about appropriate stages to implement those techniques in the planning process.

Transit agencies at all levels of government monitor trends in services, operations, and ridership using performance indicators. Federal and state agencies use these performance indicators in the appropriation of funds to transit agencies. Public transportation is subsidized through federal, state and local programs while only a portion of the operating expenses are covered through rider fares. In order to gather information on riders and travel patterns, transit agencies primarily focus on current transit riders, many of which are transit dependent populations. By definition, these populations use public transit services as the primary or only means of transportation. As a result, this offers limited opportunity for ridership growth among transit dependent populations. One segment of a population that offers high opportunity for ridership growth is commuters. A commuter is considered a worker that travels from home to work on a regular basis. However, in the case of commuter oriented transit services, it is important to survey non-riders so that any new services will have the greatest potential of increasing ridership among commuters. This report explores the potential commuter demand for additional or express bus services provided by San Luis Obispo Regional Transit Authority (RTA). RTA operates countywide fixed-route bus services and para-transit services for San Luis Obispo County. This report focuses on RTA’s Route 9, which operates between the North County and the Central County. In order to collect data from non-riders, electronics survey instruments were created and distributed using employer e-mail addresses. The survey instruments were sent to three major employers in San Luis Obispo County: California State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), the City of San Luis Obispo, and the County of San Luis Obispo. A link to one of the surveys instruments was also included on San Luis Obispo Council of Government’s (SLOCOG) Rideshare’s March 2013 e-newsletter as a way to reach additional non-riders. Analysis of the survey responses resulted in the recommendations to RTA. Recommendations are separated into two categories: (1) Expansion of RTA Route 9 services and (2) Future RTA non-rider outreach.

This project is an assessment of social vulnerability to sea-level rise in the unincorporated coastal area of the County of San Luis Obispo (County) using geospatial and statistical analysis. The intention of this assessment is to inform local climate adaptation efforts now required by state legislation. A social vulnerability index was generated at the Census block group level using 32 variables positively correlated with social vulnerability. The social vulnerability score for each block group is the sum of scores generated for the following principle components: (1) race/ethnicity and disability status, (2) social isolation and age, (3) income, and (4) housing quality and dependence on social services. This study uses Geographic Information Systems software to map social vulnerability scores and building footprints attributed each block group in the coastal planning area. To provide a preliminary assessment of exposure to sea-level rise hazards, social vulnerability and buildings are overlaid with existing spatial datasets for inundation, bluff erosion, dune erosion, and wetland migration induced by sea-level rise in the year 2100. Implications for existing plans and further research include the incorporation of sea-level rise vulnerability into the general plan (safety, land use, and environmental justice elements in particular), local hazard mitigation plan, and local coastal programs.