March 17
Winter 2011/MURP/GIS 206A
Dao Doan
Aging in Place in Ventura County:
Addressing a New Challenge
Searching for Solutions to
Current and Future Challenges to a Growing Demographic
Case Study: City of Thousand Oaks
Introduction
The nation, and our region, could be facing an imminent crisis of unprecedented
scale and lasting effect if we do not take actions soon to address the challenge.
Starting in the next few years our society face an onslaught of people turning sixty five
in drove; these are citizens who hailed from the tail end of the baby boomers. They will
be joining the ranks of seniors who qualify for an already heavily burdened Medicare
system, amid an on-going housing crisis that still teeters on the brink of collapse, a
stubborn recession that has yet to release the economy from its stranglehold, a lower
education system that still produces students ill prepared for an increasingly competitive
global market, and a country still mired in ill-fated wars abroad.
The Challenge
In fact according to demographic experts, starting in 2012 the US will see around
10,000 people a day becoming “seniors”. From the urban planning perspective, much
of our nation’s cities and towns are seldom built to be truly senior-friendly. In fact aside
from being supremely car-friendly, they are hardly friendly to anyone else at all. Seniors
living in suburbs in particular tend to become isolated from services. Contrary to the
time of the turn of the 20th century, it has thus been increasingly difficult for seniors to
age in place. Meanwhile many of our community and political leaders responsible for
land use regulation remain oblivious to the impending issue.
On the premise that everything is linked in one form or another, our built
environment to our physical health to that of our economy and on to our financial
sustainability and our ecology, the question is, where should we start, what should we
do about this issue? How can we better prepare our physical environment to welcome
our seniors? Our current land use policies prohibit some of the innovative ideas being
floated around, such as retrofitting existing single family detached homes into multiple
tenant senior homes. How can we change those policies? How can help seniors ease
into their waning days seamlessly? How can they continue to live their lives as
productively as they can as they continue to age, or perhaps can they even prosper in
the third phase of their life?
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In an attempt to find answers to those questions, I seized the opportunity of this
class to research and build up some well founded data as basis for some public
discourse. I want to use them for outreach efforts to inform and raise awareness among
the public on this critical issue. GIS is a powerful tool for such tasks, it is visual while
analytical at the same time. Paired with the right kind of graphics, it is highly
informative. It can tell great stories.
My ultimate objective is to be able to use the information generated from this
exercise to help affect policies governing our antiquated land use regulations.
(Source: Civic Venture)
Case study: Thousand Oaks
1. There are plans in place to bring the issues up to Council
2. Thousand Oaks (TO) is considering a new Specific Plan for Thousand Oaks Blvd
to turn it into a more vibrant corridor with some mixed used allowed.
3. Efforts led by Council on Aging of TO and local architects/senior advocates
Outline of Approach and Objective:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Seek to create opportunities for aging in place.
Consider services needed to accommodate growing senior population.
Consider physical environment most appropriate for seniors.
Many seniors are low income yet they may live longer. Consider how society
would take care of them.
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5. Consider policies for review, reform, discard, or to be created with regards to this
demographic. Current policies lack flexibility and deny opportunities for adaptive
reuse of existing projects.
6. Consider innovative architectural ideas, from co-housing to courtyard housing to
high-rise high density housing.
7. Review most appropriate applications that would still be sustainable, green,
pedestrian friendly, served by public transit, etc.
8. Increase transition choices for seniors as they age and need special cares.
Traditional approach: not convenient to live near family members, they either
move into senior complexes (Leisure World), assisted living care, etc.
9. Redevelop/recreate older commercial centers into well integrated mixed-used
development that are also friendly to seniors (but not senior exclusive). Repair
suburban fabric of those same commercial centers to make them more
pedestrian friendly
10. Going to where services already are: select areas where many services already
exist, and promote density developments around them. Not all have to be
concentrated around urban centers. Creation of smaller scale "village centers"
allow for minimal dislocation/relocation of seniors increase chance of aging in
place.
11. Look for proximity/accessibility to services i.e. transit, stores, civic uses;
walkability.
12. Reduced zoning requirements about land use and parking.
Methodology
1. Research census information and tracts of Ventura County from ESRI, US
Census Bureau and American FactFinder.
2. Download all needed information.
3. Review and reorganized census information into groups of seniors 55-64/6574/75 and over, including the same group breakdown in poverty.
4. Input census information onto Ventura County map to identify profile of subjects
and where they are concentrated/distributed.
5. Use scaled symbols with different colors to indicate distribution of population.
6. Isolate map of Thousand Oaks
7. Repeat population distribution for City
8. Identify key features of City, including freeways, major streets and buildings
9. Identify key characters of landmarks, from City Hall to libraries, fire stations,
community centers, shops, etc
10. Symbolize each key feature
11. Create buffer zone of each key feature
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12. Map of TO Blvd with buffer zone (1/4 or 1/2 mile).
13. Identify 4-5 services critical to senior living within TO corridor.
14. Identify potential sites for redevelopment.
15. Identify new "village centers" in existing neighborhood around existing services
(stores, churches, fire stations, medical centers, library etc). in this case I chose
a particular site in Newbury Park I am already familiar with, which has been
vacant for over ten years
16. Each center will be identified by type.
17. Identify potential sites within village center buffer zones
18. Import parcel map obtained from city source
19. Import topographic map
20. Build model of automated steps
21. Prepare and insert context photographs of sites
22. Prepared and insert concept sketcches
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Seniors will represent a significant majority segment of the population. Yet their
ability to remain actively engaged would be impacted by the way we continue to
manage land use and mobility in our communities in highly inefficient ways. Thousand
Oaks Blvd offers an opportunity to look at ways to improve our built environment
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The Newbury Park Village Center presents an opportunity for mixed-use
development in an existing neighborhood that can accommodate seniors in its midst
without having to create an exclusively senior dedicated housing project. This way we
can bring seniors closer to services centers, rather than having to worry about how to
bring services to them.
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