Prepared by
Drachman Institute, University of Arizona
Community Design Assistance Program
Summer 2004
Design Team
Professor Corky Poster
Katie Gannon and Jessie Maran
Cooperative Extension Fellows
School of Landscape Architecture
Mountain 1st Neighborhood
Neighborhood Improvement Plan
Summary 6
Inventory and Analysis 7
Design Guidelines 20
Goals and Objectives 22
Design Proposal
Master Plan 23
Park Avenue 24
Copper Street 26
Park/Copper Intersection 28
Neighborhood Entries 29
Local Streets 30
Plant List 32
Lighting Choices 33
Implementation 34
Cost Estimates 35
The Mountain/1st Neighborhood Association was established in 1998 in response to local issues and opportunities. Since that time the Mountain/1st Neighborhood Association has become a vocal and active neighborhood association. Under the leadership of a core of dedicated activists, the association has had numerous achievements, including the receipt of a 2002 Back to Basics grant for $50,000, and a Community Development Block Grant for for $50,000 in 2003.
One of the neighborhood’s greatest assets is Mitchell Park, located in the northeast quadrant of the neighborhood. The neighborhood association has worked with the City of Tucson and has significantly improved the park with a $75,000 grant from the City of Tucson Parks and Recreation Department. The new amenities include playground equipment, benches, barbecues, and protection by speed-humps around the park.
During the Spring of 2004, the Community Design Assistance Program of the Drachman Institute began to work with the Mountain/1st Neighborhood Association to develop a community master plan. The neighborhood’s goal in soliciting assistance from the Drachman Institute was the generation of a comprehensive neighborhood plan which addresses issues of neighborhood identity, safety, traffic, beautification, and intermodal transportation.
This plan addresses these concerns along with other issues that arose during our analysis of the circulation, function and aesthetics of bikeways, walkways and roadways within and throughout the neighborhood. The result is a comprehensive neighborhood plan that seeks to establish a coherent and distinctive neighborhood identity and addresses area aesthetics, pedestrian and bike circulation, and traffic speed and volume.
Mountain 1st Neighborhood is in close proximity to the University of Arizona, Mountain Avenue bike route, and the Campbell Avenue retail/restaurant corridor.
The neighborhood is bounded by Mountain Avenue to the east, Glenn on the north, 1st Avenue on the west and Grant Road to the south.
There are 660 households within this area. In 1990 these households were 55% owner-occupied and 45% rental properties. By 2000, these statistics had reversed, 45% owner occupied, and 55% rental properties. This likely reflects an increase in the University of Arizona student population and may indicate an increase in pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
The neighborhood is comprised of five distinct subdivisions established between 1929 and 1956 (date subdivision plat map approved). These original subdivisions are introverted units and lack strong physical connection with each other.
Mitchell Park is the cool green heart of the neighborhood. The park is nicely maintained, well amentized and much loved by the neighborhood. The park has inspired an arboretum design theme because of the quantity and variety of trees located there. Eleven more trees will be installed on Labor Day 2004. The neighborhood has plans to place at each tree small identification signs containing the latin and common name of each species. The arboretum theme can be extended throughout the neighborhood through art, signage and streetscape design. The theme has been incorporated into the design solutions proposed in this document.
Existing commercial zoning and land use is unfriendly to the adjacent residential neighborhood. Commercial zones should be buffered from the neighborhood, particularly the C3 (automotive land use) zoning.
Future pedestrial-scale and retail development should be encouraged along 1st Avenue as neighborhoods surround the corridor.
Subdivision design provides controlled access from commercial zone into the residential areas.
Park Avenue’s existing structure does not provide a safe pedestrian environment. Auto and pedestrian circulation is particularly precarious in the R3 multifamily zone
The Area Plan encompassing Mountain 1st Neighborhood does not recommend any changes to current land use designations. Residences that front on Grant Road should be integrated in the neighborhood by emphasizing alley access and improving alley aesthetics.
Residents in the north-west quadrant have requested lighting in their quadrant.
Existing lighting on the West side of Copper was arranged and paid for by the local residents.
Inadequate lighting on Park Avenue raises safety concerns for pedestrians and bicyclists, and affects the entire neighborhood.
In our experience it is difficult to achieve consensus within a neighborhood about lighting improvements. Some want more lighting for better safety and some want less lighting to better view the night sky.
Park Avenue and Copper Street are the primary bike routes through the neighborhood
The Park Avenue bike route is unsafe and in poor condition. As a result, this route is not well used. With improvements, Park Avenue would provide a direct route to the western edge of the University of Arizona campus, Unversity Blvd, and connections to the 4th Avenue commercial district and downtown Tucson.
Copper Street is bicycle designated, but unmarked residential street route. Copper provides bicyle connections to Mountain Avenue enhanced bike route and the Campbell Avenue commercial district.
Bicyclists on Copper Street
Mountain 1st Neighborhood is well served by bus routes and bus stops. Park Avenue bus stops are denoted by a sign and garbage can, making these stops unsafe and uncomfortable for pedestrians.
Bus stops are an excellent opportunity to display public art and establish a neighborhood sense of identity and pride. Bus stop shelters provide a welcoming place to sit and a patch of shade for waiting bus riders.
Bus stop on Park at Copper
Traffic Analysis - Volume
The highest traffic volume occurs along Copper and south of Copper on Alturas and Water and the west portion of Spring Street. .
In April of 2004, the City of Tucson performed a traffic study to determine traffic volume and speed within the Mountain 1st Neighborhood.
The results of that study were analyzed and compared to national traffic standards (Urban Land Institute, 2002) of up to 1000 vehicles/day (10 vehicle trips per day/house) as an acceptable volume on local streets.
Based on this standard, no street in the neighborhood was deemed to have excessive traffic.
The City of Tucson discontinued a rush-hour reversible lane system on Grant Road in July 2004. The traffic counts we analyzed were taken when Grant Road reversible lane system was in effect. Questions arise about the impact this change will have on traffic behavior along Park and Mountain and the associated connections with local streets.
Vehicle speeds on local streets should conform to the posted limit of 25 mph.
Even with speed humps, speeding occurs on Copper. Studies show traffic humps are less effective at calming traffic than other measures because acceleration occurs immediately after each hump and slows just before it.
According to the traffic study, over half the users on Silver near Park Avenue were travelling in excess of 25 mph.
Speeds along Water and Alturas may be related to either local or cut-through traffic.
Gateways can alleviate speeding at entries and exits into the neighborhood, functioning as both a calming device and aesthetic enhancement.
City streets are classified as either Local, Collector, or Arterial streets. These designations reflect the level of mobility each street offers. Arterials are designed to handle more cars travelling longer distances at a faster rate. Arterials have fewer ingress and egress points than local streets that are designed for shorter distances, lower speeds and only local origins and destinations. Collecters connect multiple local streets to adjacent arterials.
A street’s design should be appropriate to the street’s intended function.
Though designated a collector street, Park Avenue has a physical structure more appropriate for a local street
Mountain 1st contains two types of alleys: right-of-ways and easements. On the ground they may appear the same, but legally they differ substantially. Right-of-ways are City-owned corridors and are in the public domain. Easements are portions of privately owned land where permission for only a specific use has been granted, such as garbage collection and utility access.
Despite the lack of a well-connected street system, Mountain 1st has an extensive alley system that provides opportunities for supplementing the street system and making important connections within the neighborhood that are otherwise lacking.
Alleys can also provide alternate ingress and egress to residential parking.
Park Avenue’s narrow shoulder is crowded and confused with signage, parking and infrastructure. We propose elimination of all parking along the Park Avenue right-of-way and a limited number of ingress and egress points. Look to alleys and local streets for replacement parking.
15’ back-of-curb available for pedestrian improvements and 30’ roadway sufficient for on-street parking. This configuration results in a yield-flow situation.
8’ back-of-curb available for pedestrian improvements and 36’ roadway ample for on-street parking, results in free-flow traffic movement.
Existing Right-of-Way Widths
COPPER AVENUE AND LOCAL STREETS EAST OF PARK AVENUE
LOCAL STREETS WEST OF PARK AVENUE
SOURCE: URBAN LAND INSTITUTE, 2002
Varying street widths will produce three types of traffic flow: Free Flow, Slow Flow and Yield Flow. Free-flow allows unimpeded travel in either direction within designated lanes. Slow-flow occurs when parked cars constrain the space available for moving vehicles and drivers must react to the location of oncoming vehicles. Yield-flow does not permit two-way traffic when parked vehicles are present. Motorists must stop and yield the right-of-way to oncoming vehicles.
Neighborhoods benefit from roadways made as narrow as feasible. Narrow streets reduce construction costs, lower annual maintenance costs, and maximize livability of a neighborhood by reducing speeds and wasteful land use. In this arid environment, narrow streets are easier to shade and therefore reduce ambient temperature and improve pedestrian comfort.
SOURCE: URBAN LAND INSTITUTE, 2002
- Define pedestrian zones
- Reduce surface temperatures and radiant heat with natural surfaces
- Facilitate water capture
- Are affordable, low maintenance, long lived
- Protect pedestrians
- Delineate functions, routes
- Retain soil
- Harvest water
- Protect plants
- Buffer bicyclists from automobiles
- Separate pedestrians from bicyclists
- Buffer pedestrians from automobiles
- Contribute to a way-finding system
in design should minimize the net inflows required to maintain the design over time:
- Establish coherent neighborhood identity
- Facilitate way-finding to and within the neighborhood
- Promote neighborhood pride, unity
- Define neighborhood boundaries
A good Way-finding System will:
- Create visual interest and a coherent visual fabric
- Reduce ambient temperature and radiant heat
- Improve pedestrian comfort
- Support native bird populations
- Reinforce arboretum theme
- Survive on available rainfall with no supplemental irrigation
- Require little maintenance
Vegetation’s role in street design is to :
- Traffic circles should provide visual and physical impediment to approaching traffic.
- On-street parking is a very effective and inexpensive calming device. All existing street widths within the Mountain 1st neighborhood are adequate to support on-street parking (except for Park Avenue).
- All mitigation measures should support way-finding, offer visual interest and enhance neighborhood identity.
- Speed humps are generally one of the least effective calming devices.
Copper Street Improvements slow cut through traffic and create pedestrian connections accross the neighborhood
The Park Avenue Streetscape improves pedestrian and bicyclist safety
Improvements to Local Streets provide a pleasant pedestrian environment while encouraging on-street parking.
Gateways at neighborhood edges reinforce neighborhood identity and slow cut through traffic
Improvements to the intersection at Copper and Park emphasize the heart of the neighborhood while improving crossing safety.
Park Avenue’s pedestrian realm is confusing, often dangerous and sometimes even non-existent. The narrow and crowded shoulder often forces pedestrians into the bike lane.
Mountain 1st neighborhood is an area of U of A student rental housing and therefore has a higher proportion of bicycle and foot traffic.
On-street parking, often in the right-of-way, creates an additional hazard pedestrian and bicycle users of Park Avenue.
Multifamily housing units, often with inadequate parking facilities, generate higher traffic volume. Vehicles frequently back out across the right-of-way and into the Park Avenue roadway.
Strong rains create significant water flow in the Park Avenue right-of-way.
Signage, electrical infrastructure and fire hydrants frequently crowd and confuse the right-of-way on Park.
Park Avenue Plan - Typical Segment
5’ Swale & Planting Strip
Suggested Lighting Location
Copper Street is the only east-west street that runs across the entire neighborhood. Its role in unifying the neighborhood is extremely important. Copper has a 60’ right-of-way with a 30’ roadway and vertical curbs. Ample 15’ back-of-curb areas are available for sidewalks and landscaping.
There are currently five speed humps along Copper but the most recent traffic study indicates speeding still occurs.
The back-of-curb area along Copper is undeveloped, with the exception of curbs, encouraging the use of this area for parking.
Parking in the back-of-curb area combined with insufficient shade make this area unfriendly to pedestrians.
Copper Street looking west from Park Ave.
Copper Street looking east from Park Ave.
The Copper Street design creates a boulevard feel emphasizing the connection of the two halves of the neighborhood across Park Avenue. This is accomplished through the long linear stretch of sidewalk spanning the entire neighborhood in combination with the repetition of street trees, lighting and boulder elements. Mini-medians work with existing speed bumps to slow traffic by narrowing the travel lanes and interrupting sightlines. These medians (6’x26’) contain plantings and art elements which establish and reinforce neighborhood identity.
On-street parking is instituted in areas where no median exists to augment neighborhood feel and reduce speed of through traffic.
Driveway aprons also provide a unifying element across the neighborhood and serve to announce driveways to pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers.
Proposed median/gateway/traffic calming device.
Copper Street Plan - Typical Segment
Driveway Apron
Low Plantings &
Large Decorative Rock Mark Driveways
Sidewalks along both sides
Offset Rows of Street Trees
Intersection is defined by curbs to match existing roadway
Accent plantings at four corners
Raised intersection with imprinted design
Park & Copper Intersection
EXISTING CONDITIONS at Park Avenue and Copper Street Intersection
Neighborhood entries experience the highest traffic volume and the highest incidence of speeding according to the latest traffic study. Entries on the west side of the neighborhood are visibly exposed to unsightly commercial property along 1st Avenue even though neighborhood street and alley design provides good physical separation. To the east, the neighborhood ends abruptly at Mountain Avenue without a buffer or transition zone. This design establishes gateways at neighborhood entries with a median, similar in size (6’x24’) and style to those proposed on Copper. The repetition of this median element throughout the neighborhood establishes unity and identity, reduces speeds and visually buffers arterial and collector activity.
Local Street Exit to 1st Avenue
Typical Local Street Section at Neighborhood Edge
Currently very little on steet parking occurs in the neighborhoood. Vacant roadways lend emphasis to the width of the streets, encouraging speeding and giving the neighborhood a stark feel.
Parked cars in the back-of-curb area forces pedestrians into the roadway, a hot, exposed place for much of the year.
One of the most effective (and least expensive) methods of calming traffic is to establish parking along the street. This narrows the roadway, causing drivers to be more cautious. In Mountain 1st neighborhood, clearing the back-of-curb area along local streets creates opportunities for establishing a segregated pedestrian realm and the potential for aesthetic improvement throughout the neighborhood. This is also a great opportunity to plant and label a variety of street trees which will continue the arboretum theme from Mitchell Park.
To minimize costs, this plan proposes a general pattern of street trees accenting a natural meandering path – a design which can be adapted to the existing beaten path and incorporate the existing vegetation. This design would not require sidewalk aprons or curb cuts. This design relies on street trees to create comfort and cohesion along the neighborhood streets. The addition of street trees will also spruce up the neighborhoods, establish pride-of-ownership, integrate rental units and improve property values.
Local Street Plan - Typical 15’ Back-of-Curb Segment
Local Street Plan -
Typical 8’ Back-of-Curb Segment
Suggested street trees:
Blue palo verde, Cercidium floridum
Palo brea, Cercidium praecox
Desert willow, Chilopsis linearis
Coolibah, Eucalyptus microtheca
Mexican ebony, Pithecellobium mexicanum
Velvet mesquite, Prosopis velutina
Texas honey mesquite, Prosopis glandulosa
Monk’s pepper tree (Chaste tree), Vitex agnus-castus
Coolibah, Eucalyptus microtheca
Suggested median plantings:
Guajillo, Acacia berlandieri
White thorn acacia, Acacia constricta
Blackbrush acacia, Acacia rigidula
Shrubby senna, Senna wislizenii
Yellow bells, Tecoma stans v. angustata
Orange jubilee, Tecoma stans v. orange jubilee
Creosote, Larrea tridentata
Suggested shrubs for street plantings:
Pink fairy duster, Calliandra eriophylla
Black dalea, Dalea frutescens
Brittlebush, Encelia farinosa
Turpentine bush, Ericameria laricifolia
Deer grass, Muhlenbergia rigens
Moss verbena, Verbena pulchella
Tecoma stans
v. orange jubilee
All costs shown are estimates only. Final cost will be calculated based on final construction documents.
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Copper Street Improvement Plan
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Design and utilities survey
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20,000
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Grading and excavating
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15,000
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Trees (5 gallon)
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ea
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296
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$30
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8,880
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Tree staking
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ea
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296
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$20
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5,920
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Groundcover/shrubs (1 gallon)
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ea
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400
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$6
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2,400
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Soil conditioner
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15,000
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Rock, 4”-10”
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SY
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2,500
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$13
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32,500
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Boulders
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ea
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150
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$80
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12,000
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Driveway aprons - cement
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ea
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72
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$1,000
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72,000
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Sidewalks - cement
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SF
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27,000
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$3.25
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87,750
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Temporary traffic control
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4,000
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Construction survellience
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10,000
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Mobilization
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5,000
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Minor alterations in details of construction
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25,000
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Landscape establishment (24 months)
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25,000
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Lighting
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ea
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40
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$10,000
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400,000
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740,450
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Park Avenue/Copper Street Intersection
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complete: concrete, drain, surface paint
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15,000
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