Identifying Vacant and Underutilized Parcels Suitable for Students’ Living

The off-campus student population of Iowa State University in Ames has been rising steadily in recent years along with a rise in the student enrollment of the university. About 22% of the city’s population consists of off-campus students residing in rented or owned housings. The rise in the student population of the city is a constant pressure and inspiration for the developers to build more housing suitable for student affordable rented housing. Ames is blessed with a comprehensive transit called CyRide that efficiently serves almost the entire city. Though the service level is unequal to different parts of the city, a vast majority of the student population is dependent on it for their travel throughout the city. While private cars provide an important mode of transport, it might not be true for university students owing to the limitation of parking availability at the University, high parking rates and sometimes unavailability of cars.

An online student survey of off-campus students highlights the importance of walking proximity to the transit stops and supermarkets as some of the most important factors while making their choice of residences. A 30% increase of housing units in the last fifteen (2001-2015) years have left few vacant parcels in Ames to be developed into multifamily housing or apartments. This has created a need for assessing the economic viability of existing low density parcels on prime transit corridors. This paper focuses on the particular case of off-campus students at Iowa State University in Ames, and tries to locate the vacant and underutilized parcels in the city, suitable for students’ accommodation, taking into account the primary and secondary destinations of students, the transit network and valuation ratio of existing built parcels.

The study finds a number of parcels suitable for development and redevelopment into multifamily housings at intersections of some of the prime transit corridors. Proposals are given on the identified parcels along with recommendations for modifying some CyRide routes to enhance its efficiency. A further detailed study at individual parcel level is suggested to identify precise locations and typologies of new developments. An apparent lack of cooperation and conversation is noticed among the stakeholders of the city while studying some of the past development decisions. A coordinated approach from all the stakeholders of the city is advised before making future development and zoning decisions.