An area can be torn by the competition between the preservation of its character and the desire for new development. Cayucos’ downtown area is recognized by both residents and visitors as a special place with a strong, small, coastal town feel. However, issues such as accessibility, public amenities, parking, maintenance, and general development needs have to be dealt with. This thesis deals with the issue of how to plan for change while maintaining the character of Cayucos, and presents an enhancement plan proposal for its downtown. The development of this plan was based on a research-based design methodology, which included a literature review on sense of place, a review of five case studies, and fieldwork with surveys, interviews, and on-site observations and analysis. The research included the understanding of the needs, interests, and expectations of the stakeholders, including local business owners, residents, and visitors, in order to help define core issues and to inform the vision and a series of responsive goals for the area’s enhancement. The final enhancement plan proposal followed a design approach that was responsive to site, context, and stakeholders, and will contribute to Cayucos’ quest for the increase of the quality of its downtown while responding to market and development needs.

The dimension of humanization has been neglected for decades. Planning themes such as automobile and transportation have erroneously occupied a dominant position. While public space, pedestrian activities and urban space as a gathering place for urban residents have been placed in a very minor position. As motorization in contemporary cities develops, the overall pedestrian environment of cities is deteriorating, and the street spaces are seriously lacking in the care and consideration of pedestrians, especially the vulnerable groups. Urban design generally, and pedestrian environment in particular, has a significant influence on pedestrian activity. Also, with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation (and Generation X, to a lesser degree), the older adult population will increase significantly over the next few decades in California and the United States as a whole. For most people, walking is a social equal mode of transportation, involving all levels, including children and the elderly. For the elderly, walking is the most common way to travel, and also the most convenient and economical way to exercise and participate in public activities, so streets are often the most commonly used outdoor space for walking. Streets should be designed to encourage walking, cycling, and interaction. The core content of this study is how to construct urban street space suitable for the elderly. Specifically speaking, what are the needs of the elderly regarding street designs that allows them to walk and participate in public activities. The study will also looks at whether the existing urban street environments meet these needs, for comfort level and interest level and how to create street space to meet these needs, so that urban streets can better serve the elderly.

The City of McFarland, CA is in the process of updating its General Plan and identified updating the land use element as the first step in this process. This land use element consists of a land use diagram, land use standards, and goals, policies, and programs. These components of the document are based upon community feedback as well as upon analysis of case studies and state and regional guidelines. The final plan accommodates for increased residential densities, a mixture of adjacent land uses, a greenbelt, and large areas of land adjacent to Highway 99 for commercial and industrial use.

Reconstruction after natural disasters can represent large peaks in a community’s greenhouse gas emission inventory. Components of the built environment destroyed by natural hazards have their useful life shortened, requiring replacement before functionally necessary. Though the hazard itself does not release greenhouse gasses, the demolition and rebuilding process does, and these are the emissions we can quantify to better understand the climate impacts of disasters. The proposed methodology draws data from existing emission and hazard resource literature and combines the information in a community scale life cycle assessment. Case studies of past disasters are used to refine the methodology and quantify the emissions of single events. The methodology is then annualized projecting the emissions of future hazards. The annualization of greenhouse gasses caused by hazard events provides a baseline from which reduction strategies can be measured against. Hazard mitigation strategies can then be quantified as greenhouse gas reduction strategies for use in Climate Action Plans. The methodology combines the fields of climate action, hazard mitigation, and climate adaptation. Each field attempts to create sustainable and resilient communities, but most plans silo each discipline, missing opportunities that are mutually beneficial. Quantifying the greenhouse gasses associated with recovery following a disaster blends these fields to allow development of comprehensive resilience and sustainability strategies that lower greenhouse gases and decrease risk from existing or projected hazards. An online supplement to this thesis is available online at disasterghg.wordpress.com

Redevelopment of brownfield sites has become increasingly popular since the inception of voluntary cleanup programs in the early to mid 1990’s. Local governments have begun to offer incentives to private developers or land owners to offset costs associated with contamination and encourage the redevelopment of properties that are typically underutilized. Incentives may take several forms including, but not limited to, fast-tracked project approval, risk based cleanup standards, liability relief, tax breaks, and direct funding assistance. This study investigates how incentives that are offered by local governments to private developers or land owners influence the rate of redevelopment in their sphere of influence. A survey was administered to local governments throughout the State of California to determine how incentives are used for the redevelopment of brownfields. Results from this study show a preference by participating local governments to offer direct funding assistance, which may be directly linked to a relative level of inexperience.

The premise of this study is that an understanding of catalysts and impacts of social and economic change in the Los Angeles Metro Green Line study corridor and an analysis of current planning policies can help identify how future planning policies may generate more ideal and positive outcomes for the study corridor. This study evaluated the conditions within the transit corridor with four selected station areas defined by a one-mile radius from each station. The stations that make up the transit corridor are along the Los Angeles Metro Green Line that runs east west between Redondo Beach and Norwalk. A mile radius buffer was chosen to fully capture the spacing between the stations linearly and use that to define the corridor’s primary area of influence. This study evaluated the changes in demographic composition, housing affordability, transportation affordability and job accessibility within the Metro Green Line corridor between the year 2000 and 2010. Trends in the corridor revealed that over a ten-year span, the corridor saw shifts in demographic composition, growth in job and housing densities and increases in the cost of housing. Over the ten years, the corridor has not yet developed to the standards of a location efficient environment. This study recommends that protection of vulnerable populations such as the high proportion of renter-occupied housing units is important because they are more likely to make up core transit riders that need public transportation. Preserving and building affordable housing near transit would enable households to save money on both transportation and housing expenditures and can work towards making the corridor more affordable. By understanding the three main variables in the context of social equity, a decision-maker can avoid the potential of negative gentrification, displacement, and promote economic viability in the corridor.

This professional project provides a much needed draft update to the existing Area Plan for North Ventura Avenue (last amended in 1990), an unincorporated area of the County that falls under the City of Ventura’s sphere of influence. New goals, policies and programs have been provided to supplement the goals, policies and programs of the current countywide General Plan for Ventura County (adopted in 2005). The supplemental goals, policies and programs proposed in this draft update apply specifically to North Ventura Avenue, and account for a pending annexation of the area by the City of Ventura. The overall aim of this project was to provide the Ventura County Planning Division with a draft update to the existing North Ventura Avenue Area Plan that reflects modern planning practice and theory. Sustainable growth and development for the area are the underlying goals of this proposed draft update. Reducing auto-dependency through the proposed adoption of a ‘mixed-use specific plan’ land use category represents the most pertinent recommendation of this draft update in aiming to achieve sustainable growth and development of the area in the future.

This project takes a look at the impacts of our built environment on obesity in children living in racial and ethnic communities in relation to city planning. The results of this project results in a comprehensive report to provide an in-depth look into understanding the important relationships between children’s health and the built environment and understanding the best practices and recommendations for improving health in Guadalupe. Located in the Santa Barbara County, the City of Guadalupe is mainly an agricultural town with over 85 percent of its residents who are of Hispanic Origin. With almost half of its Latino population under 17 years of age, Guadalupe is an ideal location to examine the number of complex social, economic, and environmental matters that can contribute to higher overweight and obesity rates among Latino children. The food environments and physical environments were examined using Community Assessments and outreach efforts with school children and the residents of Guadalupe. Current professional and academic literature on childhood obesity, the built environments, food environments, and schools were reviewed for this project. Responses from a multitude of methods were analyzed and compared to create a list of recommendations for improving children’s health in Guadalupe. These methods included Community of Excellence (CX3) field surveys, walkability surveys, and a Photovoice project with school children.

Abstract The Historical Influence of Railroads on Urban Development and Future Economic Potential in San Luis Obispo Adrianna L. Jordan Today the sound of a train passing through San Luis Obispo may be intermittent and faint, but persistent nonetheless, a reminder that the railroad (displaced eventually by the automobile and accompanying expansion of highways and road systems, and later by air connectivity) was a significant force in the development of the City of San Luis Obispo. The sound of railroads evokes a sentimental reminder of the past, but the railroad’s continued presence in the city, cutting through its urban fabric, raises intriguing questions as to what constructive role it can play in the evolving city economy. Can the railroad make a contribution to the new economy of the 21st Century? And if so, how? These questions are worth considering beyond nostalgia for a railroad-dominated past as we become more concerned, nationally and especially so in the State of California, about living sustainably. The aspiration to create communities that reduce dependence and expenditure on the automobile and the petroleum based economy that it represents has surfaced as an important goal, one that might enable us to live within our resource base. In this emerging context of heightened concern about integrating sustainability into current development, what role will, and might, the railroad play in shaping future developments and influencing land use? This work explores these questions by tracing the intertwined histories of transportation and land use in the City of San Luis Obispo from the 18th century Spanish mission era to the 19th century railroad era to the present-day automobile and air travel era. Although the heyday of rail as an economic driver in the city has come and gone, San Luis Obispo’s Railroad District, with the award-winning Railroad District Plan for its place-making guide, is poised for continued revitalization. Public and commercial entities such as the Amtrak Station, the Railroad Museum, the Park Hotel building and its restaurants, and the Railroad Square Channel Commercial Building anchor the district and serve as pulse points of activity for locals and tourists alike. In addition, the Railroad District’s excellent pedestrian and bicycle connectivity helps to link it with the rest of the city and channels people to it. Given the present concern over greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from motor vehicles, rising fuel costs, shortages of oil, and the centralized land-use patterns popular in New Urbanism and required by SB 375, it is possible that the railroad, or some other form of fixed rail public transportation might once again become a preferred mode of long-distance transport to the major metropolitan areas south and north of the city and beyond.

The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has developed a rating system that examines the sustainability of neighborhoods. They have specifically stated that that LEED-ND certified neighborhoods will protect and enhance residents’ overall health, the natural environment, and quality of life. This study uses relevant quality of life indicators that are commonly identified by social scientists as accurate interpreters of the various quality of life domains to determine if there is, in fact, a relationship between LEED-ND and quality of life. Four of the ten domains examined were found to be related to LEED-ND certified/certifiable neighborhoods, thus, to a certain extent, LEED-ND certification does increase quality of life as compared to traditional suburban neighborhoods.