Nonresidential Land Research Articles

The built environment predicts observed physical activity.

Background: In order to improve our understanding of the relationship between the built environment and physical activity, it is important to identify associations between specific geographic characteristics and physical activity behaviors.Purpose: Examine relationships between observed physical activity behavior and measures of the built environment collected on 291 street segments in Indianapolis and St. Louis.Methods: Street segments were selected using a stratified geographic sampling design to ensure representation of neighborhoods with different land use and socioeconomic characteristics. Characteristics of the built environment on-street segments were audited using two methods: in-person field audits and audits based on interpretation of Google Street View imagery with each method blinded to results from the other. Segments were dichotomized as having a particular characteristic (e.g., sidewalk present or not) based on the two auditing methods separately. Counts of individuals engaged in different forms of physical activity on each segment were assessed using direct observation. Non-parametric statistics were used to compare counts of physically active individuals on each segment with built environment characteristic.Results: Counts of individuals engaged in physical activity were significantly higher on segments with mixed land use or all non-residential land use, and on segments with pedestrian infrastructure (e.g., crosswalks and sidewalks) and public transit.Conclusion: Several micro-level built environment characteristics were associated with physical activity. These data provide support for theories that suggest changing the built environment and related policies may encourage more physical activity.

Choice of Land Use Development Type within Commercial and Industrial Zoning

AbstractThis paper expands upon previous literature for land use and transportation interactions by modeling nonresidential land development in Windsor, Ontario. Separate logit models were created for commercial and industrial development to capture the developer’s choice of development type. These choices were categorized as office, retail, restaurant, and other for commercial developments and warehouse, factory, and other for industrial developments. The development type choice was calibrated using four separate models, as follows: (1) multinomial logit, (2) nested logit, (3) multinomial logit with spatial effects, and (4) nested logit with spatial effects. Significant spatial correlations on decisions for commercial development were observed, illustrating the impact of agglomeration economies. Warehousing developments were particularly influenced by transportation with three positively significant transportation proximity measures. This is especially important since the study area resides within a heav...

Typologies of sprawl: investigating United States metropolitan land use patterns

We investigate patterns of residential and nonresidential land use in 311 United States metropolitan (Extended Urban) areas in 2000 using four measures: intensity, compactness, mixing, and core-dominance. A cluster analysis revealed four distinctive groups of land use patterns: (1) Most-Intense, Least-Compact, Least-Mixed, More-Monocentric Development, (2) Less-Intense, Most-Compact, Less-Mixed, Less-Monocentric Development, (3) Least-Intense, Less-Compact, Most-Mixed, Most-Monocentric Development, (4) More-Intense, More-Compact, More-Mixed, Polycentric Development. Bivariate statistics demonstrated that geographic, historic, economic, demographic, and transport variables differentiate land use pattern types. Based on their multidimensional distinctions, we label the four types of metropolitan areas: Ascendants, Insulars, Redevelopers, and Cosmopolitans.

Evolving United States metropolitan land use patterns

We investigate spatial patterns of residential and nonresidential land use for 257 United States metropolitan areas in 1990 and 2000, measured with 14 empirical indices. We find that metropolitan areas became denser during the 1990s but developed in more sprawl-like patterns across all other dimensions, on average. By far, the largest changes in our land use metrics occurred in the realm of employment, which became more prevalent per unit of geographic area, but less spatially concentrated and farther from the historical urban core, on average. Our exploratory factor analyses reveal that four factors summarize land use patterns in both years, and remained relatively stable across the two years: intensity, compactness, mixing, and core-dominance. Mean factor scores vary by metropolitan population, water proximity, type, and Census region. Improved measurement of metropolitan land use patterns can facilitate policy and planning decisions intended to minimize the most egregious aspects of urban sprawl.

Compositional and urban form effects on residential property value patterns in Greater London

The objective of this research is to determine the role of urban street layout design in the process of shaping property values. The effect of spatial accessibility on rent is a classic finding of spatial economics. Using space syntax fine-grained spatial design analysis, which indexes the spatial centrality and accessibility, the patterns of property prices are analysed for a large contiguous sample of over 60 000 residential dwellings in a North London borough, using the council tax band as a proxy variable for the property price. Few studies have examined the effect of spatial contiguity on the housing sub-market classification. The findings demonstrate that the council tax band proxy is a good indicator of residential property sale prices. In addition, a hedonic model framework shows that spatial centrality and accessibility, as indexed by the space syntax spatial design analysis, accounts for the variations in residential property values for single and multiple dwellings when controlling for the property size, relative density and building age. Multivariate analysis is used to establish the weighting of the different variables. The single most important spatial factor is the property size, followed by the ambient density, the local and global spatial accessibility and the building age. Non-residential land use location, the proximity to main arterial roads and the associated traffic and air pollution are shown to inhibit the residential property location.

Similar effects of residential and non-residential vegetation on bird diversity in suburban neighbourhoods

Estimating the relative importance of vegetation on residential land (gardens, yards, and street-trees) and vegetation on non-residential land (parks and other large green spaces) is important so that competing options for urban conservation planning can be prioritized. We used data from an urban breeding-bird monitoring program to compare the relative effects vegetation on residential land and vegetation on non-residential land (both the amount and type of vegetation at local and landscape scales) on bird species richness and an index of conservation value for the bird community. We then estimated the realised relative benefit of managing the amount of vegetation on these two types of land (i.e., as alternative management options for promoting biodiversity), which might be achieved within the practical limits imposed by human population density. The local effects of increasing residential and non-residential vegetation amount were similar and positive on all measures of bird species richness and conservation value. Non-residential vegetation had an additional landscape-scale influence on bird diversity that residential vegetation did not. Options for managing the amount of non-residential vegetation appear to be more limited by high human population density than for managing the amount of residential vegetation. This suggests that there may be greater realised benefits to bird diversity from managing the amount of vegetation on residential land than from the more common focus of urban planning of managing vegetation on non-residential land.

ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS WITH PEDIATRIC ASTHMA

Background and Aims: Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, affecting approximately seven percent of children in the United States. Evidence has indicated that the social environment and physical environment contribute to asthma prevalence as well as asthma-related morbidity. Methods: We implemented a geographic information system to determine the relation between ecological level factors and asthma diagnosis and emergency department use in a school-based cohort of adolescent students in Oakland, CA. Social factors were derived from Census 2000 variables from students’ census tract; environmental exposures were calculated from distance to non-residential land use designations, toxic release inventory (TRI) sites, and major roadways in the area. Results: Over a two-year period, 4,017 students completed a brief, in-class asthma survey and provided residential addresses that were able to be geocoded. Controlling for individual level variables, students diagnosed with asthma who resided in the 1st and 2nd quartiles of distance to industrial areas had increased odds of emergency department visits (OR: 1.84, 95% CI: 1.01, 3.36; OR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.05, 2.94, respectively) ; elevated and non-significant effects were found for asthma diagnosis. Distance to closed-access freeways was not significantly associated with either outcome. With regard to social factors, increases in percent of census tract residents who were currently married was associated significantly to decreased odds of diagnosed asthma (OR: 0.98, 95% CI: 0.96, 0.99). Increases in percent of census tract residents with household income less than $25,000 was significantly associated with odds of asthma diagnosis (OR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.05). When social factors were included in the model, environmental factors were no longer significantly related to outcomes. Conclusion: Both the physical and social environments are associated with asthma outcomes among adolescents in an urban community. Ecological factors measured have distinct relations with prevalence and morbidity outcomes.

Anticipating a New Railway: The Relevance of Transit-Oriented Development to Businesses in a Car-Oriented City

In the planning of a new passenger railway in Perth over many years, state agencies have actively pursued opportunities for transit-oriented development along its route. There is a strong policy framework demonstrating clear intent on the type of development required. Designing a transport system to compete with the car in an established low-density suburban environment has, however, raised some significant challenges for land-use planning. This article reports the results of research aimed at assessing changes in non-residential land use and the behavioural responses of local businesses in three emerging transit-oriented development precincts. It examines the first wave surveys of land use and businesses in 2006, the year before the railway opened, questioning the extent to which business has anticipated the new railway. The findings indicate that, despite good policy intent, planning in anticipation of the railway has been weak and insufficient attention was paid to implementation of important strategic planning principles and policies. While some land uses are compatible with transit-oriented development, these businesses employ small numbers, at odds with policies that required high trip generating development. Businesses have not shown a particularly strong interest in the new railway, their location decisions appear to reflect standard business practice rather than being influenced by opportunities created by the railway. There is a glimmer of anticipation—incoming businesses are more positive about the opportunities the railway may bring than those established in the station precincts before the 2001 railway route was announced. In particular, a significantly higher proportion of businesses in one case study station precinct are positive about opportunities created by the railway.

Disaggregate Land Uses and Walking

Although researchers have explored associations between mixed-use development and physical activity, few have examined the influence of specific land uses. This study analyzes how the accessibility, intensity, and diversity of nonresidential land uses are related to walking for transportation. Multinomial logistic regression was used to investigate associations between walking for transportation and neighborhood land uses in a choice-based sample of individuals (n=260) in Montgomery County MD. Land uses examined included banks, bus stops, fast-food restaurants, grocery stores, libraries, rail stations, offices, parks, recreation centers, non-fast-food restaurants, retail, schools, sports facilities, night uses, physical activity uses, and social uses. Exposure to these uses was measured as the street distance from participants' homes to the closest instance of each land use (accessibility); the number of instances of each land use (intensity); and the number of different land uses (diversity). Data were collected from 2004-2006 and analyzed in 2009-2010. After adjusting for individual-level characteristics, the distances to banks, bus stops, fast-food restaurants, grocery stores, rail stations, physical activity uses, recreational facilities, restaurants, social uses and sports facilities were associated negatively with transportation walking (ORs [95% CI] range from 0.01 [0.001, 0.11] to 0.91 [0.85, 0.97]). The intensities of bus stops, grocery stores, offices, and retail stores in participants' neighborhoods were associated positively with transportation walking (ORs [95% CI] range from 1.05 [1.01, 1.08] to 5.42 [1.73, 17.01]). Land-use diversity also was associated positively with walking for transportation (ORs [95% CI] range from 1.39 [1.20, 1.59] to 1.69 [1.30, 2.20]). The accessibility and intensity of certain nonresidential land uses, along with land-use diversity, are positively associated with walking for transportation. A careful mix of land uses in a neighborhood can encourage physical activity.

Food Environment, Built Environment, and Women’s BMI: Evidence from Erie County, New York

The authors present the results of a neighborhood-scaled exploratory study that tests the association of the food environment and the built environment with women’s body mass index (BMI) in Erie County, New York. The proximity of women’s homes to a supermarket relative to a convenience store is associated with lower BMI. A diverse land use mix in a neighborhood is positively associated with women’s BMI, especially when restaurants dominate nonresidential land use. The article offers suggestions for how food environments may be improved using planning strategies.

Spatial patterns of a subtropical, coastal urban forest: Implications for land tenure, hurricanes, and invasives

Spatial patterns of tree structure and composition were studied to assess the effects of land tenure, management regimes, and the environment on a coastal, subtropical urban forest. A total of 229 plots in remnant natural areas, private residential, public non-residential, and private non-residential land tenures were analyzed in a 1273 km 2 study area encompassing the urbanized portion of Miami-Dade County, USA. Statistical mixed models of structure, composition, location, and land tenure data were used to analyze spatial patterns across the study area. A total of 1200 trees were measured of which 593 trees (49%) were located in residential areas, 67 (6%) in public non-residential areas, 135 trees (11%) in private non-residential areas, and 405 (34%) in remnant, natural areas. A total of 107 different tree species belonging to 90 genera were sampled. Basal area in residential land tenures increased towards the coast while private residential land tenures and natural areas had higher species diversity than non-residential areas. Tree height, crown light exposure, and crown area might indicate the effects of past hurricane impacts on urban forest structure. Land tenure, soil types, and urban morphology influenced composition and structure. Broadleaf evergreen trees are the most common growth form, followed by broadleaf deciduous, palms, and conifers. Exotic tree species originated mainly from Asia and 15% of all trees measured were considered exotic-highly invasive species. We discuss the use of these results as an ecological basis for management and resilience towards hurricane damage and identifying occurrence of invasive, exotic trees.

LAND USE AND VIOLENT CRIME*

Although research has shown specific land uses to be related to crime, systematic investigation of land uses and violent crime has been less common. This study systematically examines links between land uses and violent crime and assesses whether such links are conditioned by socioeconomic disadvantage. We employ geocoded Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data from the Indianapolis police department and information on 30 categories of land use and demographic information from the 2000 U.S. Census. We use land use variables to predict violent crime counts in 1,000 × 1,000‐feet grid cells using negative binomial regression models. Results indicate that, net of other variables, specific land uses predict variation in counts for individual violent crimes and aggregate rates. Some nonresidential land uses are associated with higher violent crime counts, whereas others are associated with lower counts. Specific land uses also condition the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on violent crime. The implications for routine activity/opportunity and social disorganization/collective efficacy theories of crime are discussed.

From Elevated Freeway to Urban Greenway: Land Value Impacts of the CGC Project in Seoul, Korea

In 2003—04, the Cheong Gye Cheon elevated freeway in Seoul, Korea, was torn down and replaced by an urban stream and linear park. This bold initiative aimed to enhance the quality of central-city living by replacing a mobility asset that was also a nuisance with an attractive urban amenity. This research analyses the impacts of the freeway-to-greenway conversion on commercial and residential property values using multilevel hedonic price models. Specifically, for non-residential uses, it was found that there were land value premiums for parcels within 500 metres of the corridor for both the former freeway and the present-day urban greenway. However, premiums were notably higher for parcels within the 500-metre walkshed of the urban greenway entrance points than the freeway on-ramps. It is concluded that Seoul’s unique freeway disinvestment/greenway investment conferred net benefits to both residential and non-residential land markets.

Age Differences in the Relation of Perceived Neighborhood Environment to Walking

The strength of the relationship of environment to physical activity may differ by age group. Older adults were expected to be more affected by environmental attributes than younger adults. The present study examined age-related differences in associations between perceived neighborhood environment and physical activity. Participants were 1623 adults aged 20 to 97 yr divided into five groups: ages 20-39, 40-49, 50-65, 66-75, and 76+. They were recruited from King County/Seattle, WA, neighborhoods selected to vary in land use and median income. Participants completed questionnaires about neighborhood environment attributes and walking for transportation and for leisure purposes. Neighborhood environment, within a 15- to 20-min walk from home, was measured on nine attributes with the validated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale questionnaire: residential density, proximity to nonresidential land uses, ease of access to nonresidential uses, street connectivity, walking/cycling facilities, esthetics, pedestrian traffic safety, crime safety, and proximity to recreation facilities. Participants reported frequency and duration of walking using the validated International Physical Activity Questionnaire and the Community Healthy Activities Model Program for Seniors. Partial correlations were computed, adjusting for demographics. Walking for transportation was significantly related to multiple perceived neighborhood attributes in all age groups, although walking for leisure was not. Walking for transportation was significantly related to almost all neighborhood environment variables in the youngest age group. In contrast, only two environmental attributes, proximity to nonresidential uses (like shops) and recreation facilities, were moderately correlated with walking for transportation in the two oldest groups. Communities need to be designed with many favorable environmental attributes to support walking for transportation among younger adults. Having nonresidential destinations and recreation facilities within walking distance may be among the most important attributes to support older adults' physical activity.

Nonresidential Crime Attractors and Generators Elevate Perceived Neighborhood Crime and Incivilities

Recent studies have produced conflicting findings about the impacts of local nonresidential land uses on perceived incivilities. This study advances work in this area by developing a land-use perspective theoretically grounded in Brantingham and Brantingham's geometry of crime model in environmental criminology. That focus directs attention to specific classes of land uses and suggests relevance of land uses beyond and within respondents' neighborhoods. Extrapolating from victimization and reactions to crime, crime-generating and crime-attracting land uses are expected to increase perceived neighborhood incivilities and crime. Multilevel models using land use, crime, census, and survey data from 342 Philadelphia heads of households confirmed expected individual-level impacts. These persisted even after controlling for resident demographics and for neighborhood fabric and violent crime rates. Neighborhood status and crime were the only relevant ecological predictors, and their impacts are interpreted in light of competing perspectives on the origins of incivilities.

Neighborhood Mapping and Evaluation: A Methodology for Participatory Community Health Initiatives

This paper describes the use of neighborhood mapping as a key element in an ecological study of a community-based urban infant mortality prevention program. We propose the use of neighborhood mapping in evaluation research to more fully examine the local context of community health programs. Mapping can be used to study community change and to describe community assets and structural, epidemiological, and social features of neighborhoods that may influence program implementation and outcomes. Data on physical features were collected by community residents during street-by-street neighborhood walkthroughs. Other data sources included program records, Census, birth certificate, and state and city data. Analytic methods included geo-coding, exploratory factor analysis to create spatial density indicators of neighborhood features at the Census block group level, and analysis of associations between neighborhood features and outcomes. Point and chloropleth maps provide a powerful illustration of neighborhood features (e.g., vacant buildings), client distribution and participation, health outcomes, and change over time. Factor analysis indicated two salient clusters of non-residential land use: (1) legitimate daily usage (liquor stores and other businesses) and (2) non-legitimate daily use (houses of worship and vacant buildings). A composite scale was created to indicate overall risk related to physical neighborhood features. Neighborhood mapping is a powerful tool that brings participants and residents into the research process. Moreover, it can improve understanding of the role of neighborhood ecology in program implementation and outcomes.

Does a more centralized urban form raise housing prices?

AbstractThis paper examines the relationship between various quantitative measures of urban centralization and urban housing prices through the use of a 2000 data set from the 452 Census designated urbanized areas in the United States. An empirical study of this type is necessary because: (1) the theoretical influence of creating more centralized urban areas—or what many would consider less “sprawl”—on what people pay for housing is indeterminate, (2) now popular “Smart Growth” policies advocate more centralized urban areas, and (3) some have argued that a cost of this centralization is an increase in the price of homes. After controlling for differences across United States urbanized areas in residents' economic status and demographics, number and type of households, climate, household growth, nonresidential land uses, and the structural characteristics of houses, we find that a more centralized area exhibits a lower median home value and percentage of homes in an upper‐end price category. Therefore, we offer no evidence to support the contention that a successful effort to further centralize an urban area raises the price of homes in that urban area. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

Simulating Land Use Development Through a Stochastic Allocation Procedure in Johannesburg, South Africa

This paper describes a method of forecasting demographic and economic change at a spatially disaggregate level that is compatible with the requirements of a conventional transport model. The method was developed and tested in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of a scenario-planning exercise to assess potential land use and transport interventions. The procedure does not model land use development decisions explicitly but uses a geographic information system-based multi-criteria analysis approach incorporating the factors influencing the development of residential and nonresidential land uses, the constraints of land availability, and the guiding effects of government policy. Allocation occurs in discrete time steps, allowing the dynamic evolution of outcomes to be modeled in a nonequilibrium framework. It operates in connected mode with the transport model, taking accessibility changes as input into subsequent land use allocations. Monte Carlo simulation is used to approximate randomness in ...

Simulating Land use Development through a Stochastic Allocation Procedure in Johannesburg, South Africa

This paper describes a method of forecasting demographic and economic change at a spatially disaggregate level that is compatible with the requirements of a conventional transport model. The method was developed and tested in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of a scenario-planning exercise to assess potential land use and transport interventions. The procedure does not model land use development decisions explicitly but uses a geographic information system–based multi-criteria analysis approach incorporating the factors influencing the development of residential and nonresidential land uses, the constraints of land availability, and the guiding effects of government policy. Allocation occurs in discrete time steps, allowing the dynamic evolution of outcomes to be modeled in a nonequilibrium framework. It operates in connected mode with the transport model, taking accessibility changes as input into subsequent land use allocations. Monte Carlo simulation is used to approximate randomness in the location decision outcome, thus providing some sense of the variability of the outcomes that may occur at a zonal level. The method is illustrated for the city of Johannesburg for a 30-year planning horizon. It is shown to be particularly useful in developing societies where data to establish more elaborate behavioral models are absent or too costly to collect.

Overview of Real Estate Markets in Kuwait

This paper provides insights on the real estate market in Kuwait. A number of market distortions and imbalances are identified and their likely implications for the economy are discussed. The dynamics of prices on land and various types of completed buildings are also discussed. It argues that the high prices typical for single-family houses and some non-residential properties are driven up by: (1) high effective demand from families for investment outlets; (2) high social value attached to living in detached houses, which is supported by the current governmental housing policy; and (3) limited access to non-residential land by the private sector. The conditions for private investment in non-residential development, including existing constraints for non-Kuwaitis and international developer/investors, are also reviewed.