Land use sketch planning tool 

MetroPlan (Orlando, FL) 

The MetroPlan Orlando Board adopted a “Sustainable Land Use” scenario, the GIS and Land Use Planning contract as part of it's 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan. Building on this effort, we helped conduct research and developed guidance on national best practices of MPOs and their partners on integrating land use and transportation from a performance monitoring and project prioritization perspective. The work focused on developing and applying measures of “transit-readiness” for the selected transit investment corridors identified in the LRTP as guidance to local governments.

We also worked with MetroPlan to develop a Land Use Performance Measure Sketch Planning Tool that uses the travel demand model steps to evaluate land use changes as they relate to both land use and transportation performance measures. The tool allows users to select individual or a collection of Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZs) and then by manipulating the number land-use unit types, the tool calculates the adjusted future sum of productions and attractions and associated trip length.

We have enhanced the original Land Use Tool to include income stratification and mode split (auto, transit and walk). The incorporation of both the income stratification and mode choice modules into the Land Use Analysis Tool v2.0 is a crucial enhancement that builds upon the previously developed Land Use Analysis Tool v1.0. These enhancements will provide the end user to use the Land Use Analysis Tool to refine the balancing of land uses (housing and employment) at a sketch planning level to determine the land use implications to the transportation network. We anticipate that this tool will be used to assist local government planners with testing and evaluating land use scenarios with comprehensive plan amendments, site plan and land use proposals, corridor studies, and larger sector plans or special area studies.