2.0 DISTRICT ANALYSIS Community Systems
Introduction To understand how to improve a community, planners and community members must first analyze the existing conditions of the area being studied. For the District the Planning Team utilized a range of analytic and investigative tools, including an assessment of community systems, the physical attributes of the District, a public participatory assessment of areas within the District to Preserve, Enhance and Transform (P.E.T.), and finally, a market and demographic analysis. Analyzing and comparing the community attributes (e.g. land use) individually allows planners and community members to understand in more detail how the community is structured and how it functions as a set of systems. The systems analyzed and mapped for the District include the following: Land Use and Zoning Land uses occur in communities based on a response to the market, as well as local government policies that are expressed in zoning maps, ordinances, and comprehensive master plans. Refer to Figure 2 for a summary of existing land uses in the study area. There are four primary land use classifications in the study area including commercial, institutional (e.g., schools and churches), industrial and residential. These four categories tend to cluster themselves along the main road corridors and vary in density, scale and mix along the length of the corridors. Transportation Networks Movement within and through communities happens in a variety of modes, and university communities typically need to support a higher percentage of people travelling outside of a standard passenger vehicle. People move through the study area on streets and thoroughfares (pedestrian, transit, and vehicular use), and on trails and off- road non-motorized routes, which were mapped and analyzed (refer to Figure 3. Transportation Networks).
Character Area Character areas describe the general mix of uses and physical form of the built environment (buildings, streets, uses). The analysis of the District identified 11 different categories that dissect the architectural and use characteristics from downtown, through the university influenced corridors, and out to the suburban edge, as illustrated on Figure 4. Character Areas. Street Character The streets are part of the “Public Realm” and are how people experience a community on a day-to-day basis. 12 categories of street character were identified based on the land use context and the primary function of the street in moving people, as illustrated on Figure 5. Street Character. Summary and Direction While examining detailed systems is critical to understanding the structure and function of a community, it is imperative to understand how these systems work together to create the physical community form. This involves examining all these factors individually and collectively to look for distinctions and similarities, and boil these community attributes down to the essence referred to by planners as the “typology” of a given area within a community. The resulting synthesis categorizes parts of the community into typological areas of similar use, structure appearance, scale and density. The analysis of the District categorized the study area along the road corridors into three typologies: Campus to Downtown, Campus to Neighborhood, and Suburban Corridor which are illustrated on Figure 6. Typological Areas.
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