Goal

Determining the desirable and undesirable placement of greenways will lead to planning and design decisions that can increase economic prosperity and make future development beautiful and financially sustainable.

Process

Examine case studies that identify the increase/effect on value that greenways have to the surrounding area. Determine what aspects of the greenways increase value* and why (try to determine a causal relationship). Take the datasets pertaining to the causes and apply those to the MSD area.

Causal Relationship

“In general, greenways appear to increase or at least do not reduce land values. However, results are heavily dependent on local conditions. For example, a 2003 Reed College study examined a trail system that connected homes to undesirable industrial areas. In this case, home prices dropped by 6.8%.” (see here)

Scoring

1. Areas with current low value have more room to grow than areas with high value. (High value = low score, low value = high score)
2. Greenways with proximity to dis-amenities will decrease land value (low score)
3. Greenways with proximity to amenities will increase land value. Additionally, Multi-family residences will profit more from proximity to greenways than single-family development. (high score)