Personal tools

Your Central Puget Sound Information Source for Making Sustainable Choices

 
You are here:   Home → Built Environment → Land Use
Document Actions

Indicator: Land Use

Data and Data Discussion provided by Sustainable Seattle

Upstream Indicators
  •   Acres of Urban Parks and Open Space --- Following a dip in the late 1990's, there has been an increase in urban parks and open space acreage per King County resident over the last 10 years. In 2006, the urban area of King County had about 15 acres of park or open space for every thousand residents, a slight decrease from 2005.   (view data graph)
more info
Downstream Indicators
  •   Perceived Neighborhood Safety --- The average level of perceived neighborhood safety among King County residents in 2007 was not significantly different from 2001. Levels of perceived safety are not equal among regions or different populations.  (view data graph)
  •   Housing AND Transportation Costs as a Percentage of Budget --- There is no on-going reporting for this indicator broken down for King County or the Central Puget Sound, though there are multiple data sources showing that the costs of transportation and housing are going up in the region. Recent hikes in gas prices indicate that these costs will continue to escalate.  (view data graph)
  •   Prevalence of Overweight & Obese Adults --- The proportion of King County adults who are overweight and obese continues to climb. • The combined percent of overweight and obese adults has increased in each of the four regions of King County since 1994.  (view data graph)
  •   Vehicle Miles Traveled --- In 2007, VMT for the Puget Sound region increased by 0.6 percent over 2006, continuing an almost 30-year trend. Annual VMT has decreased only three times since 1980 when the first estimates became available.  (view data graph)
more info
Related Goals

A mixed land use development incorporates many sectors of a community in one area and can also ensure that affordable housing projects are included in the development plan. When neighborhoods are developed by integrating diverse land uses people are able to stay close to home for the things they need, allowing them to make more sustainable transportation choices and support their local businesses.

more info

Sustainability Snapshot:

Well-planned communities with a balanced mix of land uses (e.g. retail, office, and residential uses) give residents the option to walk, bike or take transit to nearby attractions. Low density, segregated land uses and disconnected streets are associated with increased auto use, increased obesity and other chronic illness. High residential density by itself has only a weak relationship with walking – the presence of mixed land uses and meaningful trip destinations are more important for encouraging walking.

Sustainability Trend:

The data for this indicator was taken from a snapshot study of King County.

Data Discussion

The Indicator Defined

Composite measure of six different land uses, including education, entertainment, single and multi-family residential, retail and office uses. The Mixed-use factor looks at the number of different uses within a given area as well as their relative amounts.

Data Interpretation/Evaluation

Land use mix is a composite of three different land use measures, providing complementary perspectives on land use dynamics in neighborhoods.  It takes into account the number of different land uses among six categories of attractions (education, entertainment, sing family residential, multi-family residential. retail and office) as well as their relative amounts in terms of building floor areas to total buffer land area.  Land use mix has a significant impact on modal choices for shorter non-work trips. 

The three measures are: 

The number of different land uses (individual attractions) captures the total unique destinations accessible within a household or employment network buffer.  More unique attractions indicate an area has a more diverse, and potentially more interesting, streetscape. 

The rentable building area (square footage) of a use indicates the actual density of a particular use within a buffer area (the area within a one kilometer walk of home or workplace). 

The total parcel area measures the total parcel area committed to particular uses and gives a sense of gross area devoted to uses in a buffer, independent of the number of uses or the rentable floor space of those uses.  This measure is somewhat equivalent to a description of conventional zoning by use. 

Table 1, Land Use Distribution, summarizes the distribution of land uses (attractions) in King County by the number of parcels by land use, the useable square footage in each land use type, and the total acreage in each land use type. Single-family residential is the dominant land use type in King County, both in terms of number of parcels as well as total acreage.


Data Source and Limitations

Data and data discussion is based on the LUTAQH Study referenced below.

collapse all

Additional Resources

  • Healthscape Transportation Programming Tool
    This 2006 briefing paper describes the development of a tool to evaluate the impacts of transportation investments and land use actions on travel, environment, and health related outcomes.