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Field Trips In the fall semester of 2005 SPORG traveled to the City of Sacramento to meet with their planning department. Sacramento seemed like the logical choice to visit; it is Reno’s neighbor to the west and is a larger metropolitan area that has already gone through many of the growing pains that Reno is currently combating. The field trip consisted of a conversation with five different planners currently working in the Sacramento area, but with varying backgrounds which brought a wealth of different planning experiences to the table. The primary focuses of the field trip was the creation of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) along existing corridors and the creation of future corridors. Land use, transportation, and regional planners spoke with us and gave us massive amounts of information about zoning and incentive techniques to create TOD development where it is desirable. The trip was extremely beneficial, it demonstrated innovated planning practices, such as carpool parking, that we as students will hopefully be able to implement in the future. To look at all photos from the Sacramento field trip visit the gallery section. For the spring 2006 field trip SPORG decided to venture farther into California to evaluate a metropolitan area that has long been considered at being at the forefront of innovative planning, Berkeley. Upon arrival we meet Berkeley planner Mark Rhodes. Mr. Rhodes walked us around the planning department office and gave us a brief historical overview of the planning history in Berkeley. We than had an opportunity to explore the green building exhibit that is a prominent feature of the office. Instead of sitting in the office and discussing planning theory Mr. Rhode’s took us on a walking tour of the city to show us what types of developments were being implemented. The projects that Mr. Rhodes was most excited to show us were the high rise (in Berkeley standards) mixed-use residential complexes that had been constructed in walking distance to the Berkeley campus. Some interesting components of these mixed-use buildings were that on the top of each one of these buildings was rooftop community open space that provided panoramic views of the San Francisco Bay. Other interesting features included commercial mixed-use located on bottom floor which incorporated a cultural center. The parking at these buildings was unique compared to Reno standards implementing stacked, rotating parking (insert photo of stacked parking).. The practices that Mr. Rhodes toted as a success in the field of planning was the creation of a Density Bonus Program. A 25 percent density bonus was provided to developers to create 15 percent affordable housing. Thus allowing the developer to increase revenue while housing lower income individuals, the housing had to be randomly distributed throughout the buildings and could not differentiate from other dwelling units Following the visits to the mixed-use residential complexes we than evaluated different regions of the city to witness how architecture and art could be added to a community to add aesthetic beauty to a built environment. This field trip allowed the members of SPORG to experience innovated development that was not only functional and beautiful, but could begin to solve social ills through the creation of affordable housing. To look at all photos from the Berkeley field trip visit the gallery section.

University of Nevada, Reno Maintained by Nick Exline planningunr@yahoo.com Last Modified: November 2006