Nov. 26, 2024
As the U.S. continues to grapple with the need for more attainable housing, readers of Planning continued to show that multifaceted solutions were not only relevant but also interesting. Housing dominated the most read stories of 2024, whether it was on housing solutions for older people or making preapproved plans for granny flats available to masses. Joining the ranks of the Top 10 were stories on a carless community, tips for making happier places and safer roadways, and the economic benefits of creating complete streets.
Check out Planning's Top 10 most-read stories to see what you might have missed. And, if you have any ideas for stories for next year, let us know.
Transit's "last mile" radius is widening, thanks to power-assisted scooters and bicycles. Photo by Lisa Nisenson.
10. Open-Source Tools for Sustainable Multimodal Planning
As more cities heed the call to lower motor vehicle emissions and enhance pedestrians' quality of life, planners need relevant, affordable tools to identify and analyze multimodal network improvements. The American Planning Association (APA) Technology Division examined five free tools to further innovative solutions. "As existing tools become obsolete, planners need new tools to optimize and manage mobility systems in real time," wrote authors Lian A. Plass, AICP, and Isabel Youngs.
The residential units and communal areas at Culdesac, a carless community in Tempe, Arizona, are designed to bring people together. Photo by Rebecca Noble.
9. Bringing Culdesac's Car-Free Vision into Focus
Citizens of Culdesac — a recently developed community in Tempe, Arizona — may be the vanguard of a carless future. But to get the 17-acre development moving, planners had to drive the process forward. "It takes a level of openness to say, ‘Hey, codes and regulations aren't just one-size-fits-all,'" said Ryan Levesque, deputy director of Tempe's Community Development Department.
Megan Oliver, AICP, uses research from across disciplines to connect the dots between planning, architecture, and neuroscience. Photo courtesy Megan Oliver.
8. Megan Oliver, AICP, Gives Planners the Key to Happy Places
"If we want happy, joyful communities, we need to be deliberate about creating spaces that support well-being for everyone," said Megan Oliver, AICP, in the article and on an episode of APA's People Behind the Plans. Oliver explained how neurourbanism can help planners bring joy to their communities by understanding the way places impact how we feel.
A complete street in Henderson, Nevada, is home to the Water Street Plaza, an amphitheater and outdoor space where fans gathered to watch a Vegas Golden Knights game. Photo courtesy of City of Henderson.
7. Complete Streets Drive Housing, Jobs, and Retail Gains
Long touted for their aesthetics, traffic calming, and pedestrian and bicyclist safety benefits, complete streets also deliver measurable economic benefits, according to a new study. "Complete streets in our sample added jobs 22 percent faster than in the rest of the counties' areas overall (which was 12 percent)," wrote author Arthur C. Nelson, FAICP. They also contributed $2.6 billion in new wages, 16,000 new households, and $6 billion in new development, according to the data from the 26 complete streets sampled by the researchers.
Bridge Meadows, an intergenerational community in North Portland, Oregon, is a cohousing community offering affordable housing for older adults. To bring together the residents, a 6,200-square-foot courtyard acts as the backyard for the 75 children, parents, and elders who call it home. Image courtesy of Bridge Meadows.
6. Finding Solutions for Older Adults to Age in Grace
A shortage of affordable and accessible housing for older people in the U.S. is being exacerbated by the same kinds of zoning and building code challenges hampering overall housing supply. This is a problem likely to worsen as the nation's senior population rapidly expands, meaning planners will need to use creative solutions and new approaches to prioritize the creation of new, age-friendly housing. Zoning flexibility efforts are underway at places like Bridge Meadows in Oregon, where four intergenerational facilities were developed to help residents live with more "meaning and purpose," said Derenda Schubert, the nonprofit's executive director.
Narrowing lanes — which a new study from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests may lead to safer roads — offers opportunities to consider all users by adding bike lanes or other pedestrian-friendly amenities. Photo by The Image Party/Shutterstock.com.
5. The Path to Safety: How Road Diets Can Save Lives
Roads are becoming increasingly unsafe for pedestrians and bicyclists. More than 7,500 pedestrians were killed by drivers in 2022 (the latest year data was available), according to a study from the Governors Highway Safety Association. New research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests narrowing road widths may be a solution. Planners from across the country have chimed in, demonstrating how road diets they implemented led to meaningful change.
Set the stage at community meetings to anticipate and diffuse misunderstandings, miscommunication, power struggles, and more. Photo by Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP.
4. Use These 5 Conflict Resolution Tips to Design Better Meetings
Conflict is a normal and at-times necessary part of working with others to achieve a goal. But that doesn't make it any easier when a big meeting is underway, and planners have to go face to face with a bulldozer or a conversational arsonist. Jennifer Raitt, executive director of the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments in Lowell, Massachusetts, highlighted key skills for effective conflict resolution that can help you be calm, collected, and effective in the face of conflict.
Grants Pass, Oregon, a small city about 250 miles south of Portland, has an unhoused population of 600 people. The U.S. Supreme Court in June affirmed the city's ordinance barring people from sleeping outside on public property. Photo by Mason Trinca/The New York Times.
3. What Now for Communities and the Unhoused?
This past summer, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling on an Oregon city's anti-camping law that allowed police to fine unhoused people sleeping on public property, stating that it did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. What the decision ultimately will mean for the day-to-day challenges planners face in grappling with this complex issue remains to be seen. But planners will continue to play an integral role in local efforts to find shelter for the unhoused, whether through changing land use regulations or coordinating the work of other public agencies.
The Adobu Dwell House model is a 540-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bathroom, prefabricated home that is one of the preapproved plans that can be found on the new California ADU Plans Gallery. Photo courtesy of Community Planning Collaborative.
2. New ADU Tools May Unlock Affordable Housing in Your Backyard
As the demand for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) increases in the U.S., planners are coming up with ways to speed up the permitting process by making turnkey plans available to the public online for free. "One of the benefits of this project and hopefully similar future projects is showing options for attractive housing that adds gentle density to neighborhoods where there is a lot of available land," said Britin Bostick, AICP, the long-range planning and special projects manager in Fayetteville, Arkansas, a community pioneering a guide to preapproved ADU architectural designs.
In the Soho district of Manhattan, this former retail space was converted to housing without compromising the quality of the pedestrian environment. Photo by Larisa Ortiz.
1. Yes, You Can Convert Vacant Retail to Housing
When it comes to a list of modern planning sacred cows, ground-floor retail requirements in multiuse buildings have got to be right up there. But planners can indeed boost housing supply in their communities by allowing and even promoting street-level residences in certain buildings. "Many communities have zoning codes that restrict ground-floor residential uses in their downtowns, with planners and policy makers asserting that it undermines sound planning principles and diminishes pedestrian comfort," wrote author Larisa Ortiz, the managing director of Public Non-Profit Solutions at Streetsense. In this story, she provided ways communities can leverage this opportunity — including six design ideas for new ground-floor housing.
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