Siting Housing in San Luis Obispo using GIS

Shelly Abad Olivia Alicea Matthew Bossler Joe Silins

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Siting of: • 100-acre • single-family detached

(SFD) development • density of 4-7 dwelling units/acre • not necessarily contiguous

Use 1-2 methods of landscape analysis  Self-critique method post-decision 

Cultural Method: Mormon Settlement Pattern

 Plat

of Zion: Joseph Smith Agrarian communities “The grid system” ½ acre lots Centralized townsite Growth-limiting, defensive green belt • 15,000-20,000 people living in one square mile • • • • •

Image courtesy of John W. Reps, Cornell University

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Later communities • Far West, MO • Salt Lake City: Brigham Young  Ten-acre temple, ten acre blocks  1 ¼ acre lots (bigger backyards)  Dwelling setbacks of 20 feet

 Wide streets

Plat of Far west, MO, courtesy of www.jwha.info.htm

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Western Expansion

Contemporary LDS perspectives on the past: an interview with Rob Samuelson

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Towns internally designed for communal benefit Communities sited for regional economic diversity, water availability and defense

Images courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Mormonism

Past: “vision, cooperation and interconnectedness, stewardship, and care and integration of the poor.”

Present:

EAST VALLEY, AZ 

SPRAWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Images, clockwise from top left, courtesy of Google Earth, and „scrap arcs,” at flickr.com

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WASATCH FRONT, UT Remember Springville and Spanish Fork?

Images courtesy of Google maps

A future solution: •New Urbanist design •Public transit investments

•Ban on exclusionary zoning •Housing cooperatives

2008. Daniels, Brigham. Revitalizing Zion: Nineteenth-Century Mormonism and Today's Urban Sprawl. Journal of Land, Resources and Environmental Law 28: 257.

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Community Site Goals • Create a Low

Density Housing Development, appealing to LDS Church Members

 Design  Residents

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Siting Criteria • Proximity to:  Existing LDS churches  General cultural centers  Roads

• Residentially-zoned

land • Within urban growth boundary

Images, clockwise from top left, courtesy of: MSN Live Search, and San Luis Obispo General Plan

Terrain Analysis: Omernik Approach

Extrapolation from existing data, as well as from data from monitoring stations, requires a thorough understanding of the regional representativeness of these data…Much of the problem, however, lies in misuse of these regions rather than in their design.

-Jim Omernik, “Defining Regions for Evaluating Environmental Resources,” 1989?

 Ecoregions

• Multi-scale distinct

mapping of regions of environmental similarity • General Characteristics/criteria     

Images courtesy of US EPA

of the U.S.

Hydrological Land use Land Surface Form Soils Potential Natural Vegetation

Extrapolation from existing data, as well as from data from monitoring stations, requires a thorough understanding of the regional representativeness of these data…Much of the problem, however, lies in misuse of these regions rather than in their design.

-Jim Omernik, “Defining Regions for Evaluating Environmental Resources,” 1989?

Use: Development suitability for lowdensity housing in coastal California  Siting criteria, prioritized: 

• Environmental hazard

risk • Development cost • Environmental sensitivity • Aesthetic value

Strengths and Weaknesses of Methods Selected

•Proximity to cultural facilities •Proximity to roads •Appropriately-zoned land

•Proximity to cultural facilities •Proximity to roads •Appropriately-zoned land

Strengths and Weaknesses of Methods Selected

 Strengths

• Highly centralized  Weaknesses

• Highly centralized • Agriculturally-based

 Strengths

• Good indicator of site-engineering costs  Weaknesses

• Insensitivity to ecological concerns • Narrow focus