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Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Katherine Nesse / Most adults have grown accustomed to the current design orientation of their communities; however, as adults grow older they will be hard pressed to maintain their current lifestyle and level of activity in their community. This research identifies the importance of incorporating accessibility and usability elements into the streetscape of a community to encourage the integration of seniors into community life. One of the four pillars of the Main Street approach is design. This encompasses the design of building facades, streetscapes, and public spaces. This research looks at the Kansas Main Street program and investigates its success in furthering usability and accessibility of streetscapes in rural communities experiencing an aging population and infrastructure. My thesis is if the Main Street organizations of Kansas were concerned about the access and use of streetscapes for elderly populations, their concern would be expressed in development plans and practices through their Main Street program undertakings. Through this research, I have found that while rural communities see the value in accessible streetscapes their primary barrier to creating them is a financial one.

Le recours pour excès de pouvoir introduit par les tiers fait l’objet de transformations de plusieurs natures et l’urbanisme est un domaine dans lequel la mutation est particulièrement frappante. Estimé attentatoire à la stabilité des autorisations d’urbanisme, ce « procès fait à un acte, d’utilité et d’ordre publics » a été amendé, en grande partie par le législateur, dans le sens d’une plus grande sécurisation et subjectivisation. Par ce fait, il peut désormais être décrit comme altéré dans la mesure où les caractères constitutifs de ce monument du contentieux administratif tendent à s’effacer face à de nouveaux impératifs. La fermeture de l’accès au prétoire ainsi que l’évolution profonde de l’office du juge urbanistique conduisent ainsi à interroger la permanence d’un recours pour excès de pouvoir en urbanisme. Or, le processus d’altération du recours pour excès de pouvoir se heurte à des obstacles qui empêchent toute dénaturation de ce dernier. La pertinence d’un recours en légalité, objectif et ouvert demeure certaine tant ces caractères permettent de pallier les défauts du droit de l’urbanisme et l’absence de moyen alternatif de contestation de la décision administrative. En outre, le recours en urbanisme ne peut adopter le régime d’aucun autre recours, le conduisant irrémédiablement vers l’hybridation de son régime. / Actions of annulment by third parties are undergoing various transformations, most strikingly in the field of urban planning. Perceived as prejudicial to the stability of urban planning permissions, this “deed put on trial, of public utility and nature,” was amended, mostly by legislators, towards greater security and subjectivity. Consequently, it can henceforth be described as somewhat distorted, inasmuch as the constitutive characteristics of this pillar of administrative litigation tend to fade in the face of new priorities. The closing of the access to the courtroom as well the radical evolution of the urban planning judge’s function raise questions about the enduring nature of the action of annulment in urbanism. Yet, the alteration process of the action of annulment runs into obstacles that prevent any denaturation of it. The relevance of a legal appeal, objective and open, remains unquestioned in light of the degree to which its characteristics enable to overcome the flaws of urban planning law, and the absence of alternative means to appeal the administrative ruling. Moreover, appeals in urban planning law cannot adopt any other appeal’s legal rules, which inevitably renders its own system hybridized.

The research focuses on the transfer of European urban ideas into Caracas, from Antonio Guzman Blanco's urban reforms in the 1870s to the proposal of the 1939 Plan Monumental de Caracas, devised under the guidance of the French urbanist Maurice Rotival. Considering that the emergence of urbanism cannot be reduced to its mere technical contents - especially in the backward context of the Venezuela of that period - the research traces not only the transfer of urbanistic ideas, but also the importation which took place in the domains related to the Caraquenians' urban culture and urbanity. At the same time, that urban transfer is not reduced to a deterministic effect of economic dependence, but is rather regarded as a component of the cultural relationship maintained by the Venezuelan elite with the most advanced countries of North Atlantic capitalism. By tracing the transfer of urban ideas from Europe into Caracas - which remains the core issue of the research -a parallel question is explored: the reconstruction of the primary stages which articulated the urban debate in Venezuela and underpinned modern urbanism as a discipline, a process which apparently occurred against that European background. This reconstruction involves three episodes - the urban art of the Guzmanian city, the hygiene and progress of the belle Opoque and the monumental urbanism of the democratic capital - which are presented as components of a European-oriented cycle in the history of Caracas. In order to trace that transfer and reconstruct those episodes, the research combines four types of urban discourse: the legal, political and administrative texts, the urban literature, the travel chronicles and general descriptions, and technical literature about urbanism. The interlacement of such a catalogue of specialized and non-specialized sources claims to be an innovation of the research.

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A pesquisa tem como tema o Planejamento Urbano no Brasil e versa especificamente sobre a avaliação do desempenho do Serviço Federal de Habitação e Urbanismo (SERFHAU). Cobriu todo o período de existência do órgão, de 1964 até 1974. O SERFHAU tinha como função, desde promover pesquisas relativas ao déficit habitacional até assistir os municípios na elaboração de seus Planos Diretores. Fazem parte deste trabalho, a coleta e a sistematização de informações relativas ao SERFHAU, enquanto órgão de planejamento federal integrado ao desenvolvimento municipal. São aqui apresentadas as atribuições do SERFHAU e de órgãos a ele relacionados, como o Banco Nacional da Habitação e o Serviço Nacional dos Municípios. Para a compreensão da metodologia adotada pelo SERFHAU, foram tomados como objetos de estudo o Plano de Ação Concentrada, o Plano de Desenvolvimento Local Integrado (PDLI) e o material dos Seminários e Cursos organizados pelo SERFHAU. São apresentados alguns estudos de casos de Municípios que elaboraram PDLI: Diadema, Itapetininga, Araçatuba e Guarujá. / he topic of this research is urban planning in Brazil, with emphasis on the evaluation of the performance of the Federal Service of Habitation and Urbanism (SERFHAU). The work covers the whole period of existence of that institution, from 1964 to 1974. The SERFHAU had a most diversified field of action, going from the sponsoring of researches related to problems of housing shortage up to the offering of assistance to local governments in the elaboration of city plans. This work has both collected and systematized the existing data on the activities of the SERFHAU as a federal institution of planning closely concerned with problems of town development. Not only the main responsibilities of the SERFHAU but also those of the organs related to it, such as the Banco Nacional da Habitação and the Serviço Nacional dos Municípios, have been here discussed. For a better understanding of the SERFHAU methodology, this study has also focused on its Plano de Ação Concentrada and its Plano de Desenvolvimento Local Integrado (PDLI), as well as on the material provided by the courses and conferences organized by the SERFHAU. Finally, four cases of towns that have adopted the PDLI methodology -namely, Diadema, Itapetininga, Araçatuba and Guarujá - have also been discussed.

Languages currently used by planners to conceptualize, document, and present projects lack expansive imagination and polyphonic literacy. Planning demands new languages to address social and environmental challenges within our increasingly cross-cultural urban environments. Although storytelling theory in planning has expanded contemporary understanding of what constitutes method and practice within the discipline of planning, there has been little work to date explicating what poetry offers to planning education and practice. This thesis examines several opportunities and challenges in adopting poetry into contemporary practice in Vancouver, British Columbia using a multi-method approach. Methods include: a literature review on planning projects collaborating with artists; an ethnomethodological analysis of interviews with four Vancouver poets; a constructionist analysis of a planning text and a re/formation experiment with poetry; and finally, autoethnographic 'poetry as inquiry'. Learnings suggest that a critical approach to poetry offers an alternative language to connect to both 'self as planner' and to the multitude of overlapping voices of 'publics' in process, document, and presentation.

This study and research was conducted to understand the myriad tools utilized as part of downtown revitalization plans, strategies or efforts in Ontario’s mid-sized cities, what impacts municipalities are seeking in their downtown revitalization plans, strategies or efforts, and the implications for planning theory and practice. This study and research involved a mixed methods research strategy – known as triangulation- which included a literature review, a web-survey directed to municipal staff within each of Ontario’s mid-sized cities, and a case study of London Ontario’s downtown revitalization strategy. The findings of this study and research indicate that traditional revitalization tools are still favoured in Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Further, marketing and quality of life tools are highly used by municipalities in downtown revitalization. Municipalities appear to be tailoring their downtown revitalization programs or efforts to stimulate business, and are increasingly taking an entrepreneurial, business-like approach to revitalization city centres. Transportation featured prominently in downtown revitalization efforts within Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Parking in particular, was an element that was planned for as part of downtown revitalization. Finally, stimulating the local downtown housing market was of primary importance to Ontario’s mid-sized cities. The literature consistently notes the extreme importance of housing as a downtown revitalization strategy over time. It appears that Ontario’s mid-sized cities prescribe to the theory that downtowns cannot truly function and become centres with strong retail markets, and activity hubs with synergistic uses within proximity without housing. Further, Ontario’s mid-sized cities appear to be increasingly seeking to stimulate the private sector in constructing housing. “Increase Residential Population” and “Increase General Activity” are the most prevalent objectives of downtown revitalization in Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Given that the top-three objectives of the web-survey were increasing population within the downtown, increasing general activity within the downtown, and increasing employment within the downtown, a combination of objectives which are multi-dimensional, it appears that mid-sized municipalities are seeking multi-dimensional downtowns, with particular attention paid to increasing population levels. The web-survey and case study did not concretely confirm or deny the literature with regard to monitoring and evaluation. However, the web-survey and case study do suggest that plan evaluation is not a particularly robust element of downtown revitalization efforts in Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Recommendations based on the findings of this research are provided for municipalities, planning practitioners and academics. This research contributes to the limited but expanding literature on mid-sized cities, downtown revitalization of mid-sized cities, as well as monitoring and evaluation techniques and concepts for mid-sized cities to consider. Recommendations for further research are also provided.

This study and research was conducted to understand the myriad tools utilized as part of downtown revitalization plans, strategies or efforts in Ontario’s mid-sized cities, what impacts municipalities are seeking in their downtown revitalization plans, strategies or efforts, and the implications for planning theory and practice. This study and research involved a mixed methods research strategy – known as triangulation- which included a literature review, a web-survey directed to municipal staff within each of Ontario’s mid-sized cities, and a case study of London Ontario’s downtown revitalization strategy. The findings of this study and research indicate that traditional revitalization tools are still favoured in Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Further, marketing and quality of life tools are highly used by municipalities in downtown revitalization. Municipalities appear to be tailoring their downtown revitalization programs or efforts to stimulate business, and are increasingly taking an entrepreneurial, business-like approach to revitalization city centres. Transportation featured prominently in downtown revitalization efforts within Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Parking in particular, was an element that was planned for as part of downtown revitalization. Finally, stimulating the local downtown housing market was of primary importance to Ontario’s mid-sized cities. The literature consistently notes the extreme importance of housing as a downtown revitalization strategy over time. It appears that Ontario’s mid-sized cities prescribe to the theory that downtowns cannot truly function and become centres with strong retail markets, and activity hubs with synergistic uses within proximity without housing. Further, Ontario’s mid-sized cities appear to be increasingly seeking to stimulate the private sector in constructing housing. “Increase Residential Population” and “Increase General Activity” are the most prevalent objectives of downtown revitalization in Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Given that the top-three objectives of the web-survey were increasing population within the downtown, increasing general activity within the downtown, and increasing employment within the downtown, a combination of objectives which are multi-dimensional, it appears that mid-sized municipalities are seeking multi-dimensional downtowns, with particular attention paid to increasing population levels. The web-survey and case study did not concretely confirm or deny the literature with regard to monitoring and evaluation. However, the web-survey and case study do suggest that plan evaluation is not a particularly robust element of downtown revitalization efforts in Ontario’s mid-sized cities. Recommendations based on the findings of this research are provided for municipalities, planning practitioners and academics. This research contributes to the limited but expanding literature on mid-sized cities, downtown revitalization of mid-sized cities, as well as monitoring and evaluation techniques and concepts for mid-sized cities to consider. Recommendations for further research are also provided.