The bedroom community has become a prevalent and oft-criticized part of the modern architectural landscape. These suburban towns have continually grown radially outward from major cities across the nation since the end of the Second World War. While these suburbs have served to fulfill housing needs and wants of society, pressure to develop has often forced this growth to occur at a much more rapid rate than a traditional community. This rapid development has led to poorly implemented infrastructure, especially with regard to walkability and public transportation, which has fallen short of meeting the needs of users. These solutions in turn have contributed to the automotive dependence of society, despite the numerous detrimental effects this engenders, such as waste of natural resources, greenhouse gas emissions, and increased congestion of roadways. This has led many within the architectural community to push for a shift away from the suburbs due to their lack of sustainability, especially when compared to urban environments. However, the reality of the situation which our society faces does not enable us to simply abandon the suburbs in a mass exodus to city centers. Even if it did, there is a large percentage of the population which simply likes suburbia and its associated lifestyle. If this is the case, then, there needs to be a shift in the way transit is implemented within these communities. This thesis will examine how improving access to transit can revitalize bedroom communities and better serve their residents. Through examining the town of Beacon, NY, a bedroom community serving New York City and currently underutilizing its existing transit infrastructure, this thesis will explore how architecture can integrate mass transit into lives and daily activities of a community in order to better serve its residents and reduce automotive dependency.

The cohousing movement started in the United States in the 1990’s and since then has spread to over 160 communities throughout the country. This type of community is characterized by small dwelling units, high housing density, shared facilities such as a common house, shared commons and grouped parking. These are pedestrian-oriented communities with car circulation restricted to the outskirts of the neighborhood. Cohousing settlements have the goal of promoting social interaction and sustainable living through design, programming, and shared ideals. Many design characteristics, such as house proximity, density, building height and size, the location of parking, the availability of common spaces, and size of private spaces influence social interaction in the community. However, design is not solely responsible for promoting socialization. Other variables such as programming and personal ideologies also need to be taken into consideration when analyzing social interaction within cohousing communities. With regard to sustainability, cohousing is a valid option compared to traditional housing types because it encourages resource sharing, promotes a mixed-use and mixed-income environment, and strengthens social networks. Cohousing communities can thrive in a variety of shapes, sizes and settings, and have varying degrees of outdoor spaces and availability. This study considers how outdoor spaces affect socialization behavior among residents in cohousing and aims to provide recommendations for shaping outdoor spaces in such settings. Methods include a literature review, an analysis of case studies, spatial analysis, on-site observations, informal conversations and referencing previously conducted surveys.

Recent, mounting research shows that chronic disease, the leading causes of death and primary driver of health care costs, cannot be effectively addressed through education or preventative health alone. A physical environment that promotes health—through access to healthy food, opportunities for physical activity, quality housing, transportation options, and safe schools—is an integral part of making our communities healthier. This research and accompanying Healthy Community Plans will serve as a way for the County to begin looking in-depth at the ways the built environment (our streets, parks, and neighborhoods) contribute or detract from the health of the community. Though the creation of a healthy general plan may be unattainable for the County in the short term, a focus on a small yet cohesive part of the county presents an opportunity to affect these changes. Under the direction of the SLO County Health Agency and the Health Commission, we have written Healthy Community Plans for the unincorporated communities of Cayucos and Oceano, California. Both of these plans were greatly informed by their respective communities through input garnered through outreach, interviews, surveys and personal interactions with community members. This project examines the relationship between the built environment and public health, and explores ways planning professionals are beginning to address health issues through infrastructure, land use, creative zoning, and planning strategies that promote health and active living in policy. The planning documents, modeled after health elements currently being included in general plans throughout California, have integrated the fields of planning and public health to provide Cayucos and Oceano an assessment of its residents’ health, a description of the current built environment conditions that may be helping or hindering physical activity and access to nutritious food sources, as well as establish goals, policies and implementation strategies that will set a course of action toward healthier communities.

Sustainable development efforts frequently focus on understanding and promoting the factors that influence health and wellbeing. Urban environments have received attention in recent years as spaces which can increase psychological distress. Despite hypothesized reports of urban environments being less conducive to good mental health then natural environments, few studies have investigated the effects of urban form characteristics (size, density, nuisances, transportation, and housing characteristics) and mental health measures at the city level. Using 2014 data from the 500 largest cities in the United States, this thesis evaluates the relationship between urban form and aggregate self-report scores of poor mental health. Results suggest that elements of the built environment have a direct influence on mental health status. The aim of this study is to test the association of urban form characteristics and psychological distress using a cross-sectional analysis of individual health survey responses. Mental health data were collected for a study of Center for Disease Control health characteristics in the 500 largest cities in the United States. Urban form data was collected from both United States Census and GIS datasets such as the Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Housing and Transportation Affordability Index (H+T Index). Linear regression analysis and factor analyses were used to estimate the relationship between psychological distress and urban form characteristics. Results suggest that urban density is negatively associated with mental health status at city level. This finding is logical and confirms earlier research. While measures of housing cost and diversity were slightly negatively associated with mental health, measures of transportation cost and employment access were slightly positively associated.

This project explores the potential of bamboo as an alternative building material for low cost housing units suitable for urban Ethiopia. The rational for the application of bamboo comes from its abundance throughout the country, and its proven physical properties that equate it to other building material like timber, steel and concrete. The proposed bamboo based design solution concentrates on simplification of construction methods, prefabrication of structural components and vertical densification of housing units, addressing the lack of skilled labor, cost of construction time and urban land respectively. An understanding of the design solution was established by constructing a full-scale section prototype and performing laboratory tests on key structural components.

This Master’s Thesis / Professional Project is a Sustainability Plan developed for the City of Patterson, California. The Patterson Sustainability Plan (PSP) was developed concurrently with the General Plan Update, and will be presented to the City for adoption within a year. The Sustainability Plan will help inform decision-making by way of its Goals and Actions for implementation to improve community sustainability. Before the plan was developed, background research was conducted that included a Best Practices Review to assess what other cities are doing to address sustainability, a Needs Assessment to evaluate existing conditions in Patterson and determine its unique strengths and challenges to improving sustainability, and a Policy Audit which includes an inventory and analysis of existing General Plan goals, objectives, policies, and programs supporting sustainability.

ABSTRACT Santa Barbara Tea Fire Multi-Hazard Mitigation Benefit Cost Analysis David S Flamm This study examines the benefits and costs associated with the outright purchase of properties for hazard mitigation (“property acquisition mitigation”) in Santa Barbara, California which reduced four properties’ exposure to multiple hazards. The results indicate that the estimated overall benefit-cost ratio for property acquisition mitigation projects is 1.75:1 when the exposed properties meet a threshold of eminent threat for total loss. This study further suggests that when property acquisitions are performed in an area threatened by multiple hazards the mitigation becomes two to three times more beneficial than in an area threatened by a single hazard. Possible implications and future benefits associated with this mitigation and mitigations like this are also explored. Multi-hazard mitigation is an action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risks from natural or human-caused hazards. A hazard is any condition or event with the potential to cause fatalities, injuries, property damage, infrastructure damage, economic interruptions, environmental damage, or other loss. The study area for the Tea Fire BCA (Benefit Cost Analysis) is subject to multiple hazards, primarily landslides, wildfires, and earthquakes. In an attempt to reduce the exposure to landslides a mitigation project was completed in 1998. This project included purchase of four properties by the City of Santa Barbara using federal and local funds. The undeveloped properties were left empty as open space to eliminate the exposure to risk. The project, originally intended to mitigate landslide risk, mitigated risk exposure to multiple hazards. The mitigation was put to the test during the Santa Barbara Tea Fire, a wildfire which burned approximately 2,000 acres of Santa Barbara County land in November, 2008. The following steps were followed to determine the overall loss avoidance: 1. Obtain building values before mitigation 2. Obtain current comparable building values 3. Determine burn recurrence in study area 4. Obtain fire damage estimates from FEMA BCA tool based on “before mitigation” building and contents values 5. Calculate “loss avoidance” and adjust for inflation using FEMA BCA tool 6. Add additional avoided losses not considered in BCA (e.g., emergency management costs) 7. Subtract new losses resulting from the project 8. Determine multi-hazard recurrence in study area Keywords: Hazard Mitigation, Benefit Cost Analysis, Loss Avoidance.

The Upper Salinas Headwaters Conservation Plan is an effort to understand the cultural and ecosystem resources in the region, develop tools for conservation planning, and suggest a strategy and plan of action for implementation of those strategies. The plan covers a 218 square mile area between the Santa Lucia and the La Panza mountain ranges, south of Atascadero and east of the City of San Luis Obispo. The Conservation Area consists of rugged terrain made up of vast-relatively untouched open space. The area consists of several different vegetative communities including oak savannah grasslands, mixed hardwood and oak stands, shrubland, wetland and riparian corridors. The region is host to a number of land uses predominantly agriculture (mainly cattle ranching), some urban development, outdoor recreation, and a few mining operations. Approximately fifty-five percent of the acreage within the Conservation Area is designated public land (federal, state, and county), while the remaining acreages are dominantly private lands with Rural or Agriculture designations. Places of interest within the Conservation Area include the Upper Salinas River, Santa Margarita Reservoir, the historic Santa Margarita Ranch, and the town of Pozo. The region that contains the Conservation Area has been identified as having significant ecological resources (migratory corridors, important/rare vegetation communities, and a system of tributaries critical to Salinas River water quality and supply downstream.) The recognition of this important area has come from the California Rangeland Conservation Coalition statewide landscape priorities, The Nature Conservancy, the South Coast Wildlands Program, and a countywide report completed for The Conservancy by Catherine Lambert in 2007, which utilized Geographic information Systems (GIS) to assess ecosystem attributes and growth pressure parameters. The region containing the Conservation Area received a moderate to high combined score as a result of the assessment, suggesting a need for conservation efforts and resources from the Conservancy. The Conservation Area is based roughly on the shape of the subwatersheds that make up part of the larger Upper Salinas watershed. Several headwater tributaries flow into the Salinas River; a river utilized by several municipalities and agricultural operations as it flows north to Monterey Bay. Land use changes in the region can negatively affect water quality and supply downstream as well as degrade important habitat for fish and wildlife. Projected urban develop pressures from the City of Atascadero and an increase in more intensive agricultural production places increasing pressure on both local ranching operations and the regional ecosystem. The large amount of contiguous public land presents an opportunity for a conservation strategy aimed at creating expansive public-private protected lands that will ensure long-term protection of agricultural, hydrological, and wildlife resources. This conservation plan was developed primarily using GIS information from The Conservancy and data used with permission from the County of San Luis Obispo. GIS maps were created and utilized along with aerial photos from Google Earth to analyze the landscape for the following: vegetation communities stream flow direction and order types of development land ownership/parcel data agricultural soils geology existing protected areas conservation potential potential project sites for restoration/enhancement The GIS maps, aerial photo analysis, and information collected from interviews with several family ranchers are intended to be used as decision-support tools for future conservation projects in the region. However, for this plan, strategic and implementation recommendations are suggested in the form of long-term conservation agreements, land use management and restoration/enhancement techniques based on analysis of the information that was collected. The conservation strategy of this plan emphasizes the utilization of existing protected landscapes, primarily public land, along with the establishment of partnerships with private landowners within the Conservation Area to develop large contiguous tracts of protected land in the headwaters region of the Salinas River. The ranching heritage in the region, diversity of habitat and wildlife, sensitivity of hydrological resources, moderate to high levels of development potential from urban development, and more intensive agricultural production makes the Conservation Area in the Upper Salinas Watershed an essential target for conservation efforts.

This project examines food systems and hunger in relation to city planning, and results in a draft strategic plan to address the food security and nutritional needs of San Luis Obispo County’s most vulnerable residents. This Draft Plan is submitted to the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County as part of the Hunger-Free Community Project. The Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County was the lead agency of a USDA Hunger-Free Communities planning grant awarded in 2011. With this grant, the Food Bank convened a group of stakeholders to form the San Luis Obispo County Food System Coalition, and worked with community partners to conduct three studies on existing food resources, food security, and nutritional need in San Luis Obispo County. The outcome of this project is a draft of the third component of the grant – the creation of a strategic plan to address hunger and improve nutrition in San Luis Obispo County. San Luis Obispo County is a rural region rich in agricultural production, but hunger is a growing problem in the County indicating deficiencies in the local food system. One in six residents do not know where their next meal will come from. A high cost of living coupled with many low-wage jobs leaves many residents with few financial resources from which to provide food and other basic necessities. This project reviewed current professional and academic literature on food systems, hunger, and planning; conducted a case study analysis on existing hunger plans; compiled a background report on the existing hunger situation and community needs in the County; and worked with the San Luis Obispo County Food System Coalition to create the Draft Hunger-Free Community Plan for San Luis Obispo County. The Draft Plan and Background Report are organized into five themes: Food Access, Nutrition & Hunger, Local Agriculture, Community Resources and the SLO County Food System Coalition. As this plan is only a draft, the next steps that need to be taken before final adoption of the plan are outlined. This plan is a community plan; it will require the work and support of many organizations and agencies to effectively end hunger in the County.

This thesis is based upon the phenomenon known as urban community gardening, and examines it with regards to conflicts within an intended environment. The theoretical section is based on a school of thought that holds nature as something that exists in both science and humanities, and which can be observed within the social world. As opposed to nature and society being divided, this part will address the term 'socionature', which comprises a current post-anthropocentric stream of humanities and social sciences. Essentially it stays on the theory of conflicts. The research posits answers to the question of how gardeners justify and reasonably support their activities at an urban community garden called "Smetanka garden" in Vinohrady, Prague. Two of the outcomes were: the cultivation of strong neighbourly relations; and encouragement of recreational family outings. The Smetanka garden was closed in 2017. The thesis sees the conflict that occurred around the closure as a socionatural conflict. One question is, what were the arguments for closing the garden? The main argument stated that the land should be used for construction of sports facilities to serve the schools nearby. Furthermore, the community garden was only meant to be temporarily from the beginning. Proponents maintained that the garden...