Browsing by Author "Stuckmayer, Ethan"

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    GIS Analysis of Redmond’s Great Neighborhood Principles
    (2016) Martin, Andrew; Stuckmayer, Ethan; Yang, Yizhao
    In the spring 2016 term, an Advanced GIS class at UO conducted an analysis of three existing neighborhoods within the City of Redmond to identify how well they have implemented the Great Neighborhood Principles. The goal is to apply this research and incorporate the principles into future neighborhoods as the city grows. This report first identifies the context and methods of the conducted analysis, which uses a set of walkability and urban design GIS indicators. Many of these same indicators are used in popular spatial analysis websites and provide an in-depth understanding of how the study areas are built. In addition to analyzing these indicators, students also participated in a City of Redmond site visit to collect real-time on-the-ground walkability and urban design data through the smartphone application called Device Magic.
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    Meeting the Housing Needs of Redmond, Oregon Suggestions for Providing Affordable Housing
    (2016) Brown, Emily; Stuckmayer, Ethan; Thomas, Ren
    The Affordable Housing Plan included an assessment of the existing housing options in Redmond, as well as goals, objectives, and strategies that could be used to encourage the preservation and creation of affordable housing. Although Redmond’s Affordable Housing Plan is comprehensive and fairly detailed, it was drafted before the housing market crash and resulting 2008- 2010 recession, and is now relatively out of date. To serve as an update to the Affordable Housing Plan and to identify affordable housing policies, the City of Redmond collaborated with students and faculty of the University of Oregon’s Housing Policy class to research the city’s housing climate as part of the Sustainable City Year Program. The class, taught by Dr. Ren Thomas, was tasked with identifying barriers to affordable housing within Redmond and the surrounding area, as well as suggesting policy changes to address these barriers. Students in this class split into two groups to approach this project: Group 1 conducted outreach to stakeholders in the form of interviews to gain a qualitative understanding of affordable housing within Redmond and Group 2 performed an analysis of current and potential best practice housing related policies.
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    Missing Out On Missing Middle Housing Eugene, Oregon’s Opportunity To Create Housing Choice
    (Department of Planning, Public Policy & Management, University of Oregon, 2017-06) Stuckmayer, Ethan
    Housing is a basic human need. But as the cost of living continues to outpace the growth of incomes across the country, more and more people are having difficulty finding housing that appropriately meets this need. Economic principles of supply and demand tell us that high prices reflect the intersection of strong demand and limited supply, and is exactly the situation Eugene, Oregon finds itself in. Eugene is particularly impacted by widely unaffordable housing, but it is certainly not unique. Cities and researchers have scrambled to find solutions to this housing crisis. Many have fallen short due to the complexities of the issue, while other concepts have gained traction around the country. One of these is the concept of the Missing Middle. A concept popularized by Daniel Parolek, Missing Middle Housing consists of a range of multi-unit or clustered housing types compatible in scale with single-family homes that help meet the growing demand for walkable, urban living. This concept can also be used as an affordable housing tool. Diversifying the housing stock to accommodate different income levels, lifestyles, and demographics can lead to positive affordable outcomes. Simply, Missing Middle Housing is about creating housing choice in a world that has little of it. This study focuses on identifying why development of these housing types in Eugene has been so sparse in recent years, even while the housing market has continued to demand more housing stock. It is thought that in a builder’s market, where both consumer demand for walkable, urban housing and land values are high, there must be barriers within the regulatory system significant enough to be suppressing development of Missing Middle units. Therefore, emphasis in this study has been placed on identifying these restrictive regulatory barriers within the City of Eugene’s Development Code and recommending solutions to overcoming them. After applying sections of Land Use Chapter of the Eugene Code to eight sample developments, it is found that Eugene’s regulatory environment does, in fact, pose significant roadblocks to development of Missing Middle Housing. Most notably, development code regulations such as minimum lot sizes, maximum densities, and siting standards, remain particularly restrictive to Missing Middle Housing types. Many of these regulations were adopted into City Code long ago and are now out of date. The Code is neither dynamic enough to adapt to Missing Middle housing proposals nor is it forgiving enough to allow flexibility in the development process. Additionally, it continues to be prohibitively expensive to building Missing Middle housing in Eugene. System Development Charges place Missing Middle units at a severe disadvantage and force developers to explore other opportunities that will provide them better return on their investment. All people deserve access to the kind of safe, accessible, and adequate housing they need. Therefore, the City of Eugene must take swift and robust action to reverse this situation by opening up lines of communication with citizens, incorporating their comments and experiences, and by breaking down these regulatory barriers.