Urban Planning

Downtown Specific Plan: Market Analysis, Feasibility Study & Fiscal Impact Study

City of Lancaster

This high-desert city, located in North Los Angeles County, has experienced rapid residential growth, which has largely sidestepped its older downtown. MJC, in partnership with RBF consulting, is working with the City to develop a Specific Plan for a revitalized downtown that is grounded by an extensive economic and feasibility analysis and a fiscal impact study. For this project, MJC is completing a demographic and economic analysis, retail leakage analysis, a feasibility analysis for new proposed uses: retail, office, condominiums, multi-family, and arts and entertainment uses, and a fiscal impact analysis of specific plan implementation.

General Plan Feasibility Analysis

City of Long Beach

As part of a City building project, Long Beach is updating four elements of the General Plan: land use, mobility, urban design and economic development. This analysis explores the development feasibility of proposed land uses in the new General Plan. The document, used to inform residents and community leaders about the complicated inter-related factors that influence project feasibility and to help them make decisions about land use designations, analyzes current and future market support for various project types. The analysis includes an overview of the development process, risks and the factors that influence project feasibility, as well as detailed market conditions and profoma analyses for hypothetical retail, office, single and multi-family residential, mixed-use and transit-oriented developments.

Economic Development Element

City of Long Beach

MJC is preparing the City’s first Economic Development Element as part of the City’s General Plan update. Long Beach’s economy has long been dominated by aerospace, tourism and trade. The project is comprised of an extensive demographic, economic and market analysis of Long Beach and an intensive community involvement process of 17 focus groups, 25 key informant interviews, and a series of 15 business, community and neighborhood meetings. The Economic Development Element will guide the City’s economic development efforts for the next ten years and sets forth the City’s economic vision, issues, goals, principles and policies for economic development.

Community Snapshot

City of Long Beach

Jones prepared this concise and accessible Community Snapshot for the City of Long Beach General Plan update. The Snapshot -- comprised of photos, graphics, maps and analysis -- informs Long Beach policy makers, business owners, and residents about the current state of the city. It includes detailed information about demographic trends, housing affordability, open space access, overcrowding, economic clusters and strengths, retail leakage, employment patterns, commuting, traffic, parking, mass transit, current land use, and key community issues and assets.

Community Toolkit

City of Long Beach

The Community Toolkit summarizes planning concepts to prepare the public for involvement in the General Plan update. The toolkit explores, through descriptive photographs and easy-to-read text, best practices in building design, pedestrian friendly design, walk-able destinations, mixing housing types, traffic calming, street design, form-based zoning, transit oriented development, mixed-use and live-work development, infill projects, adaptive reuse, historic preservation, green building, and more.

Sierra Madre Parking In-Lieu Fee Study

City of Sierra Madre

This small southern California city's vibrant downtown has attracted significant development interest in recent years. The City of Sierra Madre hired MJC to complete a study of the City's parking in-lieu fee to identify through a development feasibility analysis the appropriate parking in-lieu fee for the downtown. The project included a benchmark study of the in-lieu fees of 15 other California cities and recommended a significant increase to the City's fee.