AN ALTERNATIVE TO TRADITIONAL SPRAWL DEVELOPMENT: A Look at Mixed-use Developments in Tucson, Arizona

• Main Author: Freeman, Nicole
• Other Authors: College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture
• Language: en_US
• Published: The University of Arizona. 2016
• Subjects: Mixed Use Development; Sustainable
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621841; http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/handle/10150/621841

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project === Rapid urbanization has profoundly reshaped societies, economies, and the natural environment. Urban populations currently sit around 80% and 40% for developed and developing countries respectively with cities accounting for nearly all future population growth. The impacts of urbanization are vast lending to low density areas, traffic congestion, automobile reliance, pollution, and biodiversity loss. Sustainable development is essential to maintaining the integrity of the world with current and future anticipated levels of urbanization. Mixed-use developments or those which combine three or more integrated revenue producing uses are a form of sustainable development which can help mitigate the negative effects of urbanization. Benefits of mixed-use include pedestrian and bicycle friendly areas, place-making, increased revenue, and reduced automobile reliance and pollution. This research attempts to determine the most successful form of mixed-use development in downtown Tucson, Arizona. This study boundary was chosen because downtown Tucson is in a state of revitalization and it is important to analyze how developers and the City of Tucson are making use of land. For the purpose of this research a case study analysis was performed on three mixed-use developments, the Cadence at Congress Street and 4th Avenue, One East Broadway at Broadway Boulevard and Stone Avenue, and the Mercado San Agustin at Congress Avenue and Avenida del Convento. Each development was examined and rated based on economic, social, and environmental success. All three developments scored fairly similarly but the Cadence scored the highest with low operating costs, the creation of a high volume jobs, and a location near transit and pedestrian and bicycle friendly areas.