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Internet-based surveys and urban design education: A community outreach graduate project in Redding, CA

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Abstract

This paper is a contribution to the discussion on how to incorporate community participation into the urban design process within a pedagogical context. It is based on an outreach project by a class in the city planning graduate program at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The project included an Internet survey to gather community input for a contentious riverfront site in Redding, CA. The responses permitted a study of perceptions, attitudes and expectations about the city and the project area, and an examination of design alternatives. The Internet survey provided 864 responses and generated a rich amount of information that was utilized in the programming and selection of design concepts for the project. The site's proprietors, the community and the media were in full support of the final project, which prompted the city council to appoint a special committee to oversee the advancement of specific policies and recommendations for the area's future development. The effectiveness of the method of public input and the successful project process suggest important pedagogical and professional implications.

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Notes

  1. This is an extended and revised version of a paper originally presented at the International Seminar on Urban Form in Ouro Preto, Brazil, 2007.

  2. This format is set by the state. See State of California Governor's Office of Planning and Research at www.opr.ca.gov.

  3. See Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (2009). Guide to Undergraduate and Graduate Education in Urban and Regional Planning. 14th edn. ACSP. See also www.acsp.org.

  4. See <http://www.caed.calpoly.edu/> and <http://planning.calpoly.edu/>

  5. Most students hold bachelor's degree in Environmental and Urban Studies, Geography, History, Biology and so on. In some classes, there are one or two students with a background in landscape architecture and, more rarely, in architecture.

  6. The class instructor was Vicente del Rio, and Daniel Levi was the consultant for environmental psychology and survey construction and analysis.

  7. Cal Poly's undergraduate students take a graphic skills class and three urban design studios.

  8. The article ‘Seeking Redding's Future on the Riverfront’ by Vicente del Rio and Sean Nicholas appeared in the Opinion section of the Record Searchlight on 6 February 2005.

  9. The class used <surveymonkey.com> as the online resource to construct, administer and gather the survey results.

  10. Redding's the Record Searchlight published an extensive and illustrated first-page article (local section) titled ‘Designs shape riverfront – Students will unveil plan for Park Marina on Saturday’ setting the stage for the public presentation. There were more than 100 members of the community in the presentation.

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del Rio, V., Levi, D. Internet-based surveys and urban design education: A community outreach graduate project in Redding, CA. Urban Des Int 14, 192–206 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/udi.2009.20

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