Coding Multiple Uses

Table of Contents

The 2015 Inventory is our first attempt (since switching to a parcel base) at assigning multiple uses to parcels. The last two inventories had a MODIFIER flag that allowed for specific multiple-use combinations, but was only put to use for combinations of church & school on the same parcel. For 2015 we are adding a new field, LANDUSE2, to account for multiple uses on parcels. Because some parcels have more than two significant uses, this field is not limited to a single additional use—it will allow for up to four additional uses, which will be written into the field with just the four-digit land use codes with a semicolon delimiter (the field is formatted Text with 20 characters assigned). Because of this formatting the land use code domain (e.g. displaying 1111 as “Residential, Single-Family Detached”) can’t be applied to this field…you’ll only see the code.

When to code additional land uses

Allowing for additional land use codes does not mean every single activity on a parcel needs to be reported; this is meant for significant activity, either where there are two or more uses which equally occupy the parcel (or the space within building on the parcel), or where the smaller use (in terms of area) has an impact in the number of jobs or households on the parcel. Below are some fairly straightforward examples…this initial set of instructions doesn’t anticipate every possible multiple-use instance. Instead, when encountering a situation that you are not sure of, describe the situation to David, who will mull it over, recommend a course of action, and ask you to update the Questions & Recommendations section below.

Water Tower Place has at least three major uses:

  • Water Tower Place Mall (1211: Shopping Mall, 8 floors),
  • Ritz-Carlton Hotel (1250: Hotel/Motel, 15 floors), and
  • Residential condominiums (1130: Multi-Family Residential, 40 floors)

For 2010 and 2013 the property was assigned a single code for the mall, on the premise that, while the mall occupies the fewest floors, it generates the most activity of the three uses. For 2015, this parcel would keep the 1211 code as the primary land use, but also get “1250” and “1130” codes assigned to the LANDUSE2 field. Additionally, since one of the uses is residential, an estimate of the number of residential units needs to be entered using the RES UNITS Update tool.

Jackson Park is a major Chicago park on the south side with two parcels that have LANDUSE2 candidates:

  • The Museum of Science and Industry is on the north end of Jackson Park and has a significant enough presence to merit a LANDUSE2 of Cultural/Entertainment (1240) since it has hundreds of employees. For consistency with earlier inventories, the primary LU code should remain Recreational Open Space.
  • The next parcel to the south is the Jackson Park Golf Course, coded (naturally) 3200 Golf, but it includes La Rabida Children’s Hospital with a few hundred employees as well, so a LANDUSE2 of 1310 Medical Facilities is appropriate here.

Nursing Home/Independent Living combinations Facilities for senior citizens are expanding to offer more of a “continuum of care” that run the gamut from independent-living townhomes to full-service nursing facilities; in the Inventory the former are considered residential (usually multi-family) while the latter are coded 1310 Medical. This either/or designation is problematic: coding these as Residential suggests there is limited employment activity, and doesn’t sync up with the Census’ reporting of an Institutionalized Group Quarters population in the area. Coding it as Medical suggests absence of a population that is free to come and go, which affects travel model estimates. Facilities which serve as both a nursing home as well as an independent living community should be coded 1310 Medical as their primary land use code. After assigning this primary code, re-select the parcel(s) and run the Flag Multiple Uses tool to assign 1130 (Multi-Family Res) and/or 1112 (Single-Family Attached, if there are townhomes on the property). A Residential Unit Estimate should also be assigned to the property, for the independent living units only. We try as much as possible to match these residential unit estimates to the definitions used by the Census Bureau, where population living in independent living units are treated as “households,” while residents of the skilled nursing part of the facility are counted as Group Quarters population. A residential unit estimate can come from the 2010 Census Housing Units (HU_TOT) count (if it was there prior to 2010); sometimes the number of independent living units is listed on the facility’s website.

Hotel & Convention Center The Schaumburg Convention Center is an example of two Commercial uses on the same parcel, since it has not only the 150,000’ convention space but also 500 hotel rooms. In this instance the hotel should get the primary code because it has 24/7 activity, while the convention center is only in use when hosting a convention.

Which is the Primary land use?

Some guidelines:

  1. What it was coded in the previous inventory: For consistency with earlier inventories, priority should be given to whatever it was coded in 2010/2013 so any over-time analyses don’t flag a land use change where one didn’t actually happen. Exception: if the 2010/3 code is wrong, it should be changed (which also involves assigning an error point).

    • Note – for the church/school combos that were coded Educational with a “R” modifier, these can all be selected in a single query and have the 1350 (Religious Facilities) code pushed into the LANDUSE2 field.

  2. The more “active” use: When #1 (above) doesn’t apply, use the same logic employed for previous inventories, assigning the more active use as the primary code is recommended. “Active” in this context means: how much activity (households, employment) is generated by each of the uses? Some examples:

    • Residential hi-rise with street level commercial: while the 1216 “Urban Mix with Residential Component” covers buildings up to four stories high, taller buildings have in the past been coded multi-family. Under this new scheme, these buildings would still be coded multi-family (1130) but will also get a LANDUSE2 code of 1215 (Urban Mix) to represent the retail/service component (which, being limited to the first floor, is a small fraction of overall activity).
    • On the other hand, a high-rise office building with street-level retail does not need a 1215 LANDUSE2 designation, since most office buildings host some small amount of retail.

Using the Flag Multiple Uses tool

Assigning additional uses requires activating the Flag Multiple Uses tool. This is done after initial coding of the polygon (or assigning added uses to something that was coded in an earlier inventory). Simply select the polygon, open the tool, and select additional use (or uses… up to four maximum), and run tool. In addition to populating the LANDUSE2 field, this tool will also set the value of MODIFIER to “M” (for “multiple”). If the additional uses had a residential component, use the RES UNITS Update tool (under Non-Coding Tools) to assign a residential unit estimate. Note, some uses are not allowed to be secondary uses since they don’t help characterize the activity of a parcel. These include:

  • 1565 - Stormwater Management
  • 3500 - Trail or Greenway
  • 4110 - Vacant Residential Land
  • 4120 - Vacant Commercial Land
  • 4130 - Vacant Industrial Land
  • 4140 - Other Vacant
  • 5000 - Water
  • 9999 - Not Classifiable

Questions & Recommendations

This section will get updated whenever a multi-use question is asked (& answered)