School of Planning, Design and Construction

By: SPDC Communications

On Friday, April 25, 2014, six teams of Urban & Regional Planning undergraduate and graduate students gathered in MSU’s Brody Hall Auditorium in East Lansing to present their final Practicum projects.

Over the course of the three hours, the teams comprised of six students each gave a gathering of peers, professors and relatives a snapshot of what they had been working on for the entire semester.

The Practicum course is the capstone of the Urban & Regional Planning Program in the School of Planning, Design and Construction (SPDC) at Michigan State University. The student teams worked with local municipal governments and community-based organizations on various planning-related issues.

The Class of 2014 covered a wide variety of subjects, from the potential economic impact the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at MSU could have on the Lansing area, to the feasibility of an art incubator and maker space in Benton Harbor, to an impact study of urban farming in Lansing.

The first group presented under the heading of “Accelerating Capital,” in reference to their study of the potential economic impacts that the installation of the MSU Facility for Rare Isotope Beams could have on the Greater Lansing area. The group consulted with task forces, including the Lansing Economic Area Partnership and the MSU Center for Community and Economic Development, professors and researchers of similar facilities nationwide to conclude that such a facility could have a positive impact.

The next team to present developed recommendations for a tool for the Greater Lansing Food Bank Garden Project to use as a method for assessing the impact that community farming has had on their garden members and the surrounding communities. The group found that urban farming most noticeably impacts the health, social and economic aspects of communities in a variety of ways.

Another team was tasked with evaluating the possibility of creating a form-based code from the "Design Lansing" Master Plan for the South Cedar Corridor in Lansing. This led the group to conduct a build out analysis, a tax data analysis and traffic studies for the City of Lansing. They reached the conclusion that implementing a form-based code in this part of Lansing would not be feasible at the moment.

Williamstown Township and the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission tasked a Practicum team with assessing the feasibility of the creation of a trail that would run along the Red Cedar River, while connecting transportation hubs from Meridian Road in Okemos to Putnam Street in Williamstown Township, and providing riverfront access. The findings showed that the trail would be possible, but given the amount of funding available, it would have to be built in intervals. This Practicum project is part of the Mid-Michigan Program for Greater Sustainability (funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Sustainable Communities Program.

The Brightmoor Alliance of Detroit asked their team to conduct a community marketing study for the Fenkell Commercial Corridor. This team completed an asset study of the structures and physical characteristics, as well as community assets, along the Corridor. They were able to identify areas for development and improvement of the Corridor, and as a result of their presentation to the Brightmoor Alliance a company wants to bring their business to this area.

The Southwest Michigan Planning Commission had a Practicum team conduct studies for Benton Harbor that would help them in locating a maker space and an art incubator in their community. The group developed a socio-economic profile for the City and assessed various potential locations that could house such space. They were able to identify the best place to renovate for this function.

The presentations, full reports and posters from each team are available on the SPDC website. Additionally, a video about the Spring 2014 Practicum was recently released that features an inside look at the course experience. Check it out on SPDC’s Youtube Channel.

This project is supported, in part, pursuant to the receipt of financial assistance to the MSU Center for Community and Economic Development, Regional Economic Innovation (REI) University Center from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (EDA) and the U.S. HUD Sustainable Communities Program. The statements, findings, conclusions and recommendations are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any federal or state agency, or Michigan State University.