URBS 356 - Environment and Land-Use Planning

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

This seminar focuses on land-use issues such as open-space planning, urban design, transportation planning, and the social and environmental effects of planning and land use policies. The focus of the course this year is impacts of planning policies (such as transportation, zoning, or growth boundaries) on environmental quality, including open space preservation, farmland conservation, and environmental services. We begin with global and regional examples and then apply ideas in the context of Dutchess County’s trajectory of land use change and planning policies.

Topic 2023/24a: Re-Envisioning Poughkeepsie: From Automobility to Place. (Same as ENST 356 and GEOG 356) This seminar focuses on planning issues such as sustainable land use planning, urban design, mobility, equitable transportation planning, and social/economic effects of urban planning policies. Using the City/Town of Poughkeepsie as a laboratory, this seminar focuses on how transportation and land use planning decisions affect the social, economic, cultural, and environmental resources of neighborhoods and communities through an in-depth look at a catalyst site and its surrounding area.

We work in consulting teams to specifically examine the socio-economic, demographic, mobility and access issues involving the chosen site/study area, as well as environmental and planning concerns surrounding the history of Poughkeepsie’s transportation decision making, (including the construction of Route 9 and the “Arterial” in the 1960s and 1970s) and the transition of the local and regional economy away from industry to healthcare, educational services and tourism. Through fieldwork, readings and group exercises, we explore potential opportunities for re-envisioning the chosen site and strengthening its connection to surrounding neighborhoods. Susan Blickstein.

Prerequisite(s): One 200-level course in Geography, Urban Studies or Environmental Studies.

One 3-hour period.

Course Format: CLS