The City of Apache Junction is located in south central Arizona, in the shadow of the Superstition Mountains. With its rich history on the silver screen and a plethora of natural and cultural attractions, Apache Junction has significant potential for tourism. Already, the city’s population of roughly 40,000 doubles to nearly 80,000 each winter […]
School Size: 51
Transitioning Mobile Home Parks
Mobile housing represents 63% of the City of Apache Junction’s housing stock. At a time when available housing assistance and subsidies do not meet demand, these units represent a valuable source of unsubsidized housing stock for Apache Junction (the City) and the United States as a whole. While their affordability is an asset, the City […]
Positively Apache Junction (1/2)
Tourism Planning focused on the overall picture of tourism,from its present state to its promise, in Apache Junction. The students in this course evaluated Apache Junction’s strengths, weaknesses,opportunities, and threats based on community engagement and literature-based research. Results included that its outdoor attractions(Superstition Mountains, Canyon Lake, Lost Dutchman State Park) and nearby events (Renaissance Festival, […]
Alternative Paths to Transit Oriented Development in Leander
TOD integrates transportation and land use in urban forms that surround transit stations. Moderate to high densities, mixed-uses, pedestrian and bicycle connectivity, and environmental access are design characteristics often associated with TOD sites. Leander’s TOD site is located at the end of Capital MetroRail’s Red Line, a 32-mile transit corridor that connects the greater Austin […]
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Understanding Homelessness
Students in this course looked to peer communities around the country for best practices for addressing homelessness. To choose the communities, they searched for those with characteristics like climate, population, and unemployment rate that were similar to those of Apache Junction, as well as communities making promising strides, which they then vetted with Apache Junction […]
Sustainability & Solid Waste
Students in this course focused on understanding the current and potential impacts of Apache Junction’s existing solid waste management. To get a wider perspective, students broke into two teams. The first analyzed complaints filed with Apache Junction and Pinal County regarding solid waste, looking for trends and insights. This team also reviewed the city’s online […]
Pecan Street Corridor Design
Students in the Transit Planning course were tasked with identfying key crossings and future land uses that could beneft from pedestrian and bicycle transportaton infrastructure. Given future transportaton needs, current best practces for pedestrian and bicycle transportaton, and budget constraints, students have proposed a unifed concept for mixeduse transportaton along and across Pecan Street Read […]
Green Retrofitting
Students in the Energy Modeling & Design and Introducton to Engineering Design & Graphics courses evaluated a number of city buildings to provide the City of Pfugerville with energy efciency and water use improvement projects. They developed general concepts around energy and water conservaton and provided some optons for existng city-owned building. In completng this […]
New Housing Development Models for Leander
Students in Real Estate Development researched and evaluated the feasibility of sustainable residential development types. Typologies include cohousing, live/work, small multifamily, fourplexes, and townhouses. Working in small groups, each research team developed a 15-20 page report that examines a different housing type. Final reports included case studies or precedents from other cities in similar regions […]
Preliminary Research Toward a Sustainability Plan for Leander
Students in Dr. Paul Adams’ Urban Studies Research Methods course conducted initial research that builds a foundation for a citywide sustainability plan. Small groups used archival, observation, survey and interview methods to investigate specific aspects of sustainability that Leander’s developing plan could address. Research focused on issues including energy use, water conservation and quality, waste […]
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