Research demonstrates that Mixed-Use development that blends residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or industrial uses, and associated Urban Residential development creates compact, walkable, economically vibrant, and healthier neighborhoods that yield a more sustainable city over time and produce a greater Return on Public Investment per dwelling unit produced and acre consumed. Mixed-Use districts consume less land and more efficiently use infrastructure dollars than typical suburban subdivisions do to accommodate the same number of residents, while better responding to increased market demand for walkable urban neighborhoods. Such districts tend to more successfully balance access, mobility, affordability, economic opportunity, community cohesion, and environmental quality. This measure gauges the effectiveness of numerous Comprehensive Plan policies related to accommodating a portion of the city's population growth in mixed-use, higher density areas.

Automation permitting software is queried to for all building permit types.  Permit addresses are geocoded on a weekly basis and GIS mapping software to is used to build spatial queries for quarterly/fiscal year reporting.  GIS query techniques filter for finaled (completed) new construction residential units per permit and determines the number of residential units located in designated mixed-use areas. These designated areas include: (areas of mixed use land use from the adopted Comprehensive Plan, urban village boundaries and mixed-use zoning districts. Multiple layers are queried to ensure all residential units falling in mixed-use areas are captured.

GIS Layer Queries:  Permit Query- SF and Duplex Units: CloseDate >= '2014-10-01 00:00:00' AND CloseDate <= '2015-09-30 00:00:00' AND ApplSubType = 'New' AND Use_Type in ( 'Accessory Dwelling', 'Duplex', 'Single Family Residence') AND Units > 0 ;  Permit Query- MF and Townhouses: CloseDate >= '2014-10-01 00:00:00' AND CloseDate <= '2015-09-30 00:00:00' AND Use_Type IN ('Residential', 'Mixed-Use','Townhouse') AND Units > 1 AND ApplSubType = 'New' ;  Zoning Query: ZONING in ( 'CB-GC', 'CB-HC', 'CB-IA', 'CB-RG', 'CB-RUN', 'CB-RUS', 'CB-TF', 'CB-TR', 'CB-WB', 'MU-1', 'MU-2', 'NS-T4', 'NS-T4N', 'NS-T4NR', 'NS-T4R', 'NS-T5', 'NS-T5I', 'NS-T5N', 'TL-BM', 'TL-CC', 'TL-HM', 'TL-N', 'TL-TR', 'TL-VM', 'TU LF', 'TU N-1', 'TU N-2', 'TU N-3', 'TU NM', 'TU TCCD', 'TU UL-1', 'TU UL-2', 'TU UL-3') OR PRIMARY_USE IN ( 'mixed use', 'Mixed use', 'MU') ;  Future Land Use Query: MU_CATEGORY LIKE '%MUGC%' OR MU_CATEGORY = 'Unspecified Mixed-Use'