Developing A Revitalization Planning and Design Guideline for Enhancing Land Use Performance of a Shrinking City

Background and objective: Land vacancy is a persistent issue inmost urban areas in the United States, yet few case studies have examined how vacant lots are used and the functions they serve in local communities. The purposes of this study were to provide a new revitalization planning and design proposal for the Durant-Tuuri-Mott (DTM) target area in the shrinking city of Flint, MI, USA, and to assess the final planning and design guideline through an analysis of vacant land redevelopment alternatives. Methods: For developing a revitalization planning and design guideline, this study developed several design modules with three main design themes. Then, landscape performance of the final design proposals was analyzed by three development scenarios, based on implementation level: 100%, 75%, and 50%. These development scenarios were based on the local context and different implementation budgets needed to adopt the proposed design modules. To generate a comprehensive development plan by optimizing design module allocation in the study area, this research employed a system-oriented approach, analyzing the existing cultural, natural, and built environments. A community participant process was adopted to collect stakeholders’ opinions on future development. Results: By utilizing landscape performance metrics to quantify the environmental, social, and economic benefits, this study developed optimized development scenarios and a master plan for the reuse and redevelopment of existing vacant lots across DTM neighborhoods and analyzed the benefits of each. Conclusion: This research offers a flexible design method for balancing objectives in vacant land redevelopment that can be applied in other shrinking cities.