Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jason Brody / Today, achieving higher residential densities is an integral part of most discussions on concepts such as sustainability, placemaking, smart growth and new urbanism. It is argued that high density environments can potentially improve quality of life through a range of social benefits. In attempting to achieve these benefits, often times, developments that provide more than a certain number of dwelling units are considered desirable and successful high-density developments. However, understanding high residential density merely in terms of an increase in the number of dwelling units over an area of development might not help realize meaningful social benefits; in fact it could result in problems such as parking constraints, increased vehicular traffic, crowding, and eventually abandonment. This implies a dilemma of understanding high density environments holistically. Using literature review and design exploration as two key research methods, this project aims at resolving this dilemma by presenting a holistic understanding of desirable high-density environments. The research works on the idea that high densities are a matter of design and performance. Through synthesis of literature review and explorative design findings, this research focuses on the qualitative aspects of high density environments that make them meaningful and desirable. Through synthesis of literature review and design findings, the research finds that desirable high density environments should (a) Be Physically Compact; (b) Support Urbanity; and (c) Offer Livability and Sense of Place. These three qualitative aspects of high density environments are critical in determining how well such environments perform. The research further proposes eight meaningful goals and seventeen specific guidelines to achieve aforementioned three qualities that influence the performance of high density developments. In addition to these principles and guidelines, opportunities and challenges posed by explorative design exercises also allows identifying certain supplementary guidelines necessary to strengthen the framework. Together, these findings result in a theoretical framework that may be used as an effective design and evaluation tool in considering high density environments. This framework is named “Density Dynamics” to signify various morphological and socio-economic dynamics involved in a holistic understanding of high density environments.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Mary Catherine (Katie) Kingery-Page / In the United States, minorities are less physically active and in turn at higher risk for heart disease, diabetes and obesity. The purpose of my study is to examine the factors that influence physical activity in neighborhood parks and to answer: What aspects of park design and programming discourage physical activity participation in African American women? My goal is to identify barriers to physical activity and make recommendations for improving design and programming of a neighborhood park. The results of my research are relevant to the planning profession because planners can use public policy to combat inequality in the built environment. Many studies have related recreation access to socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, age, and gender. While African American women are not the only disadvantaged population when it comes to access to recreation, they do have a higher risk for obesity. In trying to answer why African American women have higher rates of obesity, some studies have found that while willingness to participate in physical activity does not differ in white and black women, duration of physical activity does. My research employs a mixed methods approach to understand the barriers to physical activity experienced by African American women, in context of a neighborhood park. This study uses a physical assessment of James Mulligan Park and the surrounding neighborhood within Alexandria, Virginia. Following the physical assessment I piloted a survey to gather information on the barriers to physical activity. The pilot guided a final survey of seventeen participating African American women in the neighborhood. I hypothesized that the perception of park safety will have an effect on the rate of physical activity in African American women. This hypothesis points to a general barrier for all women. Based on literature review, I also expected to find barriers unique to African American women. The study concluded that African American women in this neighborhood share some barriers with all women and they also expressed some barriers unique to African American women. I found that personal barriers like “exercise tires me” was the most common, rather than perceptions of safety. In addition, I found culturally specific barriers, such as “exercising is not my cultural activity” and “I avoid exercise to protect my hairstyle.” Based on my analysis of the setting and surveys I make several recommendations for the park and neighborhood.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jason Brody / There are six square miles of vacant land spread throughout Downtown Kansas City unkempt and untouched for the fear of what may exist in the soil, air, and water and the consequences that come with it (COR Team 2010, EPA 1997). Not developing the vacant/underutilized land causes more harm than good for the city, the locals, and the environment. It costs the city loss of tax revenue (Holt 2002). It hurts locals’ property values and possibly health. It inhibits the environment’s functions with potential toxins. By activating vacant/underutilized land through phytoremediation and redevelopment, it can meet the needs of the projected population growth in the next 30 years, accommodate the Rock Island Corridor, and dissolve any threats of contamination. With the threat of possible contamination on the vacant/underutilized land, surrounding properties, and industrial properties within the culturally rich Jazz and Crossroads districts downtown, phytoremediation is used as a continuation of the Rock Island Corridor’s linear park system and transit in the city context while allowing for redevelopment. The strategy examines regional to site specific strategies where phytoremediation is used to connect people to the environment, contain contaminant-producing places, and counteract contamination from new development. The development serves as a model for Kansas City to use the Rock Island Corridor to control site-specific problems as a catalyst for redevelopment of districts to solve large-scale issues through the use of phytoremediation. Phytoremediation allows for light contaminant production industries to remain functional and rely on phytoremediation to clean some of the waste to prevent excessive clean up in the future. With the help of the phytoremediation and development, it allows for us to understand how phytoremediation works while preventing sites from becoming vacant/underutilized urban areas for the betterment of the community as a proactive strategy to prevent brownfields. Phytoremediation supports sustainable preventative/remediation strategies while catering to community needs such as redevelopment along Rock Island Corridor and Common Line, multi-modal transit, Metrogreen, character of place, and city life. It blends site suitability with community needs, while creating a cleaner more efficient environment that is aesthetically appealing.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Huston Gibson / In many urban redevelopment discussions, people often refer to a catalyst as the impetus for redevelopment. Unfortunately, no standard definition of an urban redevelopment catalyst exists, so liberal use of the term catalyst persists. As distinguished in Dr. Timothy Chapin’s dissertation, Urban Revitalization Tools: Assessing the Impacts of Sports Stadia at the Microarea Level, the impacts of sports stadia (widely considered catalysts) are often overstated. In order to have valuable arguments over the impacts of presupposed catalytic activities, we need to understand the defining characteristics of an urban redevelopment catalyst and utilize a consistent process for examining them. This study identifies these characteristics and develops a methodology from which others may study catalysts. Included in the study are both narrative and tangible evidence from which researchers may decipher catalytic characteristics and events. In order to explore this analytic method, a case study was necessary. The revitalization of Washington Avenue (in downtown St. Louis, Missouri) provided an excellent opportunity to implement and test the process. Washington Avenue went from decrepit in the early 1980s to receiving the honor of being a Great Street by the American Planning Association in 2011. By delving into the developmental history of Washington Avenue, the process verified urban redevelopment catalytic characteristics, the methodology and the presence of small-scale urban redevelopment catalysts. From these findings, (coupled with a preexisting, dominant discussion focused large-scale catalysts) we see the value of small, organic development. The study prompts further exploration of urban redevelopment catalysts, especially in regards to smaller catalysts. It also suggests a new line of thinking for urban redevelopment dynamics, thus guiding future research to focus on understanding the processes of urban redevelopment.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jae Hong-Kim / The concept of Live-Work-Play has grown in popularity in the field of planning, as various strands of the planning literature increasingly have highlighted the potential benefits of providing places to live, work, and play in close proximity. This study explores the theoretical foundations of the Live-Work-Play concept and discusses its effectiveness as a strategy for creating vibrant urban areas by reforming the spatial arrangement of the built environments. More specifically, the present study empirically examines how the segregation or the mixture of places to live, work, and play may create differences in terms of growth, inequality, education, the built environment, and transportation by analyzing the Boston metropolitan region as an example. The empirical analysis with the use of census tract level socio-economic data shows that the Live-Work-Play mixes can encourage more desirable travel patterns, while the mixes may not significantly promote growth in small areas. However, the analysis also revealed racial and income inequalities exist in the provision of the mixes in the Boston region. These findings suggest planners carefully should consider the equity issues when adopting the Live-Work-Play concept and providing its potential benefits.

Doctor of Philosophy / Environmental Design and Planning / Huston Gibson / Lee R. Skabelund / Urban agriculture and urban food-systems are locally productive landscapes and their supporting programs and networks. Urban agriculture is now valued and actively promoted by many urban communities. Having numerous community benefits, UA is often considered to have desirable neighborhood amenities and is assumed to have effects on nearby property prices. However, very little is known about the primary or secondary economic contribution of these productive landscapes to urban environments, particularly in regards to how urban agriculture relates to property values in a neighborhood. Because urban agriculture sites are often overpowered by increasing exchange-values of surrounding properties, the original values (economic and non-economic) to the neighborhood or community may be lost as urban agricultural sites are transformed by “higher return” development schemes. Since urban agriculture can disappear or fail without effective financing and adequate policy and planning support, it is imperative to the longevity of such programs to understand how important land-use and economic variables interrelate. This study examines the spatial-temporal magnitude and economic relationship between urban agriculture parcels and property values. The study uses the hedonic method employing the Spatial-Durbin modeling approach. Findings expand the theoretical and policy discourse on how investment of public resources aids neighborhood development through low exchange-value programs such as urban agriculture. In understanding the advantages of local food systems to urban form, context-specific neighborhood strategies developed in tandem with targeted community development and comprehensive plans can improve urban revitalization and (re)development within a larger resilient city planning framework. The key findings from the study illustrate that there is great value in understanding the most appropriate design approach and features of urban agriculture for different neighborhoods and market groups. Important design considerations include scale, design aesthetic, abundance and quality of urban agriculture sites within different market groups and neighborhoods.

Master of Science / Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering / Stacy Hutchinson / Urban areas have traditionally been managed as separate entities from the natural environment. Recently, urban planners have been interested in reconnecting these areas back to the biosphere to capitalize on ecosystem services restoring damaged hydrologic processes. This study focuses on suburban Johnson County, KS (part of the Greater Kansas City area), which has 62 USEPA 303(d) listed “impaired” or “potentially impaired” waterbodies. Previous studies show that watersheds crisscrossed by multiple politically boundaries see increases in water quantity and decreases in water quality. Using a multi-watershed, multi-city spanning entity like a school district, it is investigated how stormwater best management practices (BMPs) employed over a large entity can help undo the negative effects of watershed political fragmentation. BMP modeling includes simulating grassroots and planning policy change movements across three target watersheds using PC-SWMM watershed model. The grassroots simulation models rain barrels at single family homes and an extended dry detention basin (EDDB) at schools. Planning policy simulation models 10% and 20% reductions in impervious roads and parking lots in accordance to EPA Smart Growth practices. Resulting, it was seen that all three of these BMPs saw the greatest improvements from current conditions at low precipitation events. Ranking from least to most effective across the outlet’s average flow, maximum flow, and total volume and supporting watershed infiltration, surface runoff, and surface storage are as follows: rain barrels + EDDB, 10% reduced, and 20% reduced impervious simulations. All three stormwater BMPs help demonstrate how grassroots movements and planning polices changes can positively impact regional waterbodies in this maturely suburbanized region.

Master of Landscape Architecture or Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Timothy Keane / Kansas City is expecting a 25% growth in population by 2050. This design proposal promotes West Bottoms as a potential area to house some of the new population, and more importantly supply a live and work community for these people. West Bottoms is also home to major industry in Kansas City as well as an up and coming art culture. West Bottoms has great potential for a community that allows the existing and new population to be a part of a live-work-play community with the vacancies in the area. The projected population growth is expected to promote sprawl, further increasing the average driving time to the city. West Bottoms currently has few connections to the downtown and offers few reasons to come to the area. These connections are mainly major bridges or highways. Another issue West Bottoms faces is flooding problems from OK Creek and Turkey Creek, which lead into the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. Finally, post and present industrial soil contamination threatens the groundwater. When mixed with flooding concerns, this contamination is potentially harmful for the health of downstream cities. Drawing inspiration from travels, Kansas City charm, plants, art, and water storage, case studies were researched. Themes from each case study were quantified. These themes paired with inventory and analysis of the West Bottoms provided the basis for the design proposed here. The successional design of the area will progress from a contaminated landscape to a landscape that holds floodwater. The final design holds all of the stormwater from the 100 year 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 hour rain events. The final design incorporates areas of learning, a variety of paths and seating, a live-work-play community, clean and creative industry, and an art culture that sustains the excitement for the timeline of succession. Overtime this landscape will evolve into a new destination for Kansas City using an integrated solution remediating the soil and holding flood waters as an amenity for the new population.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Environmental Design & Planning Program / Lee R. Skabelund / The Restorative Urban Design (RUD) calls for a new urban design and planning approach targeting environmentally responsible re/development of urbanized areas through ecologically responsive impact mitigations. If implemented in a systematic manner, such re/developments can help move urban areas toward the successful restoration of the natural environment of which they are an inseparable part. The RUD model advocates more rigorous assessment and mitigation of urban impacts by carefully evaluating the environmental performance of urban re/developments within five primary dimensions: Atmosphere (emissions, pollutants, ozone depletion); Hydrosphere (stormwater, domestic water, wastewater); Lithosphere (land use, land cover, food and wastes); Ecology (habitat resilience, biodiversity, population and resources); and Energy (renewability, reduction and efficiency, transportation). The model relies on a scenario-comparison process in order to evaluate and optimize the performance of urban re/development projections through four critical scenarios, which are respectively: 1) Natural Baseline (NBASE); 2) Historic Progression (HPROG); 3) Trajectory Forecast (TFORE); and 4) Restorative Projection (RPROJ). The RUD Case Study illustrates how the principles and strategies of Restorative Urban Design can be applied specifically to a typical (densely developed) urban area, namely River North District in Chicago Metropolitan Area. The case study focuses exclusively on mitigation of a single critical human impact on the natural environment: Anthropogenic CO₂ Emissions. The case study focuses on the design assumptions by which the restorative urban re/development scenarios might exceed beyond the full mitigation of emissions into the global remediation by 2040. The restorative projections illustrate that only a certain portion of emissions can be effectively mitigated onsite (5 to 55%), and that the remainder of projected emissions (45 to 95%) need to be mitigated offsite in order to achieve the necessary sequestration and storage. The restorative research suggests that the mitigation of major human impacts on the natural environment – not only CO₂ emissions but also other major impacts – are likely to require significant urban transformations. Moving beyond the strategies of preservation and/or conservation, the restorative approach asserts that comprehensive environmental restoration is achievable if urban impacts are adequately estimated and then entirely mitigated onsite as well as offsite through a systematic process of urban re/development.