City of Peoria 2019-23
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City of Peoria
Ranked as the No. 1 place to live in Arizona by Money Magazine and the only Arizona city named as one of the best cities in the U.S. by Yahoo! Finance, the city of Peoria is currently home to more than 171,000 residents. The city enjoys a reputation as a family-oriented, active community with an exceptional quality of life. Peoria entertainment and recreational amenities include popular attractions such as Lake Pleasant, a large network of trails and open space, community parks, recreation centers, community theater, libraries, pools, and the spring training home for the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners.
The city has demonstrated a strong commitment to sustainability, as evidenced by its directive to incorporate LEED building design standards, a council-adopted Sustainability Action Plan, and a dedicated full-time staff person to manage and coordinate organization-wide sustainability initiatives.
View Peoria’s community profile to learn more about its demographics, history, and sustainability initiatives.
City of Peoria projects
Sustainable waste best practices
Recycling raw materials is a complex process with unique logistical challenges for each material type. Additionally, materials that are recyclable may not necessarily be recycled if there is no viable reuse market for any material. Peoria’s Public Works Department has requested ASU support in exploring the feasibility of adopting a solid waste program for challenging materials, such as textiles and e-waste, as well as investigate alternative approaches to solid waste management.
Taught by Albert “Al” Brown, Students examined the challenges and opportunities for these materials and conducted case study analysis of peer communities. Students provided Peoria with recommendations for exploring the recyclable reuse market that focused on building partnerships with other communities and funding strategies.
Taught by Albert “Al” Brown, Students researched best practices for recycling e-waste. A second group of students investigated the feasibility of a biomass gasification program.
Taught by Albert “Al” Brown, capstone student, Shruti, investigated the benefits of recycling fine glass and conducted a life cycle assessment to recommend fine glass recycling best practices.
Taught by Albert “Al” Brown, capstone student, Annie, conducted a life cycle assessment and cost benefit analysis for green waste.
Fall 2022 final summary report
Opportunities for Green Waste Scaling in Peoria
Spring 2022 final summary report
Novel Applications For Fine Glass Waste: Reuse and Recycling
Fall 2021 final summary report
Historic Preservation & Revitalization in Old Town Peoria
Fall 2020 final summary report
Addressing Challenging Waste Streams Textiles & EPS
Historic preservation: frameworks and guiding principles
Founded in 1886 by Midwestern settlers, Peoria is nestled in the Salt River Valley and extends north into the foothills around Lake Pleasant. Peoria’s economy has been largely agriculturally focused, and has since grown into a flourishing city, with diverse local industries and a reputation for high quality of life. As the City grows, it is interested in maintain the historical integrity of the community through preservation efforts.
Taught by Malcolm Goggin and LaDawn Lingard, three capstone students distributed and analyzed community survey results to recommend strategies for present and future development of the Palo Verde Ruin.
Taught by Daniel Schugurensky, three students identified six peer communities and conducted a literature review of historic preservation best practices and strategies.
Taught by Malcolm Goggin and LaDawn Lingard, capstone student, Pam, worked with Peoria’s Library Manager to research and review peer community historic preservation plans to provide recommendations for the preservation of the Palo Verde Ruin.
Fall 2021 final summary report
Historic Preservation & Revitalization in Old Town Peoria
Data governance & content management strategy
The need and demand for digitally accessible information from municipalities has grown significantly in recent years. Cities, such as the City of Peoria, are often responsible for managing large and complex amounts of data and content on their websites in order to serve their communities effectively and efficiently. To continue providing high quality service to residents, the City of Peoria seeks assistance in performing an analysis on the municipal website to determine the current state and strategize for efficiency improvements.
Taught by Leeanne Sorenson, Technical Communication students collaborated with Peoria’s Chief Information Office to analyze and identify industry standards the City could incorporate to make the website more efficient.
Resource guide to support aging in place
Ranked as one of the best places to live in Arizona, the City of Peoria strives to provide the best quality of living for all its residents. As its population grows and continues to age, the City of Peoria is interested in developing a city resource guide that is geared towards older persons and includes information about the City’s health services, recreation programs and classes, as well as how to be an active member of the community.
Fall 2022 final summary report
Resource Guide to Support Aging in Place
Extreme heat communication
Extreme heat is an increasingly complex challenge for cities to consider in its public safety and awareness programming. With the recent launch of the nation’s first Office of Heat Response and Mitigation within the City of Phoenix, additional cities are considering how to integrate heat safety into their public communications and public safety strategies. Currently, the City of Peoria is partnering with the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) to host cooling centers and hydration stations as part of the Heat Relief Regional Network. Peoria’s Office of Emergency Management has enlisted the assistance of ASU students to research and identify areas in need of heat preparedness, as well as inform communication strategies for the City of Peoria to inform residents about extreme heat safety and the City’s existing responses to mitigate extreme heat.
Taught by Kathryn Lambrecht, Students collaborated with Peoria’s Emergency Manager to design messaging about extreme heat for the City of Peoria, focusing on the user experience of the messaging and various audiences like Peoria’s unhoused population and seniors.
Water policy strategies
If the current, severe drought continues, the Central Arizona Project’s (CAP) water deliveries will be negatively impacted, affecting not only Peoria, but peer communities as well. To address this challenge, the City of Peoria is exploring strategies to increase water conservation behaviors among their residents, and, developing shortage response plans, should conservation fail. The City is thus seeking ASU assistance to develop conservation strategies and communication plans around elements such as: regional and local cooperation, possible water cutbacks, scenario planning, and other recommended strategies.
Taught by Majia Nadesan, students learned theoretical and professional perspectives of crisis communications, which were then applied to develop sample messaging and visualizations for the City of Peoria.
Taught by Larry Olson, students in a professional certificate program applied technical knowledge and industry expertise to develop guiding strategies for proactive water conservation measures, and shortage response plans, if needed.
Taught by Majia Nadesan, graduate student, Denise, carried the Fall ‘19 crisis communication class’ work forward to the next level by conducting targeted focus group studies of Peoria residents, in order to assess the effectiveness of the messaging campaigns developed by her peers and identify the strongest strategies.
Candice Carr Kelman, students split into six groups to research peer community policies for water and land use to recommend strategies for Peoria’s water policies, codes, and ordinances.
Taught by Malcolm Goggin and LaDawn Lingard, capstone student, Jade, collaborated with Peoria’s Water Services Director to research best practices for tiered water pricing and recommended ideal pricing levels to encourage water conservation.
Fall 2019 final summary report
Engaging Residents in Water Conservation Practices
Spring 2020 final summary report
Planning for Scarcity: Water Conservation in Peoria, Arizona
Spring 2022 final summary report
Water Policy Strategy: Tiered Rates & Water Management
Community placemaking study
Peoria has been ranked as the No. 1 place to live in Arizona by Money Magazine and is the only city in the state named as one of the best cities in the U.S. by Yahoo! Finance. The city thus enjoys a reputation for being family-oriented, active community with an exceptional quality of life. The practice of placemaking interventions driven by local governments, is coming into vogue among municipal planning circles as a variety of forms of engagement with the community, which contributes to a “sense of place.”
Continuing with this reputation, the city seeks student support in identifying the placemaking activities and interventions that would be most valued by the community, through the administration of a public opinion survey and analysis.
Taught by Gregory Broberg, students developed and conducted a multi-layer study which sought to identify residents’ views on placemaking and characteristics thereof in three targeted character areas: “Old Town” Peoria, the “P83” District, and the “Four Corners” area. Under faculty and community guidance, students conducted a wide-reaching survey of Peoria residents.
Taught by Meagan Ehlenz, and David King, Keith conducted case study analysis and literature review to identify key interventions and redevelopment opportunities for Peoria’s P83 district.
Fall 2019 final summary report
Developing Community Identity Through Placemaking
Fall 2020 final summary report
Enhancing Connectivity in the P83 District
Transit best practices
The City of Peoria recently launched its first transit circulator, the “Peoria on the Go” (POGO) bus. This city-run bus service, which is available for free to residents and visitors, connects neighborhoods with local services, activity centers, specific character areas, and the larger metropolitan Phoenix transit system. Peoria is interested in learning from other communities’ successes and failures in transit circulators, to better understand attributes of successful route planning, roll-out, route adjustments, ridership, stop locations, ideal target destinations, and how effectively the city is serving its residents.
Taught by Bailey Borman, students used the human-centered problem-solving method known as “Design Thinking” to develop potential solutions to the observed under-utilization of the Peoria POGO circulator by young people (12 – 18 years old).
Taught by David King, urban planning masters students conducted a benchmarking study of peer communities to identify best practices in managing transit circulator programs locally and globally. Students also evaluated first-mile/last-mile conditions for Peoria’s transit circulator users to identify issues and provide strategic recommendations to remedy any potential gaps.
Taught by Mikhail Chester, students researched microtransit models in other urban areas, as well as identified opportunities for implementing microtransit in Peoria’s existing transportation systems.
Taught by Nathan Parker, undergraduate students from the School of Sustainability reviewed strategies for fleet electrification.
Fall 2019 final summary report
Driving Public Transit Forward Through Youth Input
Spring 2020 final summary report
Optimizing POGO Services Through Case Study Analysis
Fall 2022 final summary report
Strategies for Municipal Fleet Electrification
Smart city technology and innovation feasibility study
The City of Peoria seeks to better understand what being a “Smart City” means for their community and how they can play an important role in this regional effort. In particular, the city is interested in learning about the opportunities it has for advanced technologies that increase efficiency and quality of services for the future. This project aimed to provide clarity to the Smart City concept that is gaining momentum both on the regional and global scale. By engaging in this project, city leaders position themselves to elevate and advance Peoria’s standing in Smart City innovation and technology, while continuing to advance a sustainable, resilient, and healthy community.
Taught by Nalini Chhetri, sustainability students explored potential strategies for local governments in pursuit of becoming a Smart City and developed short-term goals specific to Peoria.
Taught by Michael Wiles and Patrick Phelan, interdisciplinary students in this class focused on general Smart Cities market research and developed long-term project goals for Peoria’s consideration.
Fall 2019 final summary report
Envisioning a Smart Peoria: Leading the Way with Innovative New Technology
Skunk Creek recreation corridor plan
The Skunk Creek corridor is a natural wildlife area in the City of Peoria that includes a mixed-use trail system following along a creek bed. This area is an example of one of many options the city presents to its residents to engage in active outdoors experiences. This project aims to create a recreation-focused design concept for the activation of the corridor, as defined, inclusive of the creek channel, flood plain, overpass bridges, as well as the channel banks.
While working on this project, students designed initial design concepts that are feasible and implementable that also tie into Peoria’s history, culture, and sense of “place”. This included conducting background research on the area and the community in order to establish foundational concepts to guide future development in the corridor, as well as interviewing community stakeholders, conducting a literature review, and researching existing or past site plans.
Taught by Joshua Loughman, students conducted an initial assessment of potential activation opportunities for the Skunk Creek corridor, with an eye toward both passive and active recreation opportunities. Students provided tiered recommendations for the city in an attempt to help prioritize high-impact investments to benefit members of the surrounding community.
Taught by Joshua Loughman, Students caried forward the work of the past semesters’ through a detailed feasibility assessment and refinement of the ideas proposed. Students assessed considerations and potential barriers such as right-of-way, grade, ADA compliance, code issues, and property ownership.
Fall 2019 final summary report
Strengthening the Community by Activating the Skunk Creek Trail
Spring 2020 final summary report
Reimagining Skunk Creek as a Valued Local Asset
Sustainability planning
Municipal governments nationwide are stepping up to take leadership in sustainability planning. By setting ambitious but attainable goals, then mobilizing department leadership to attain them, cities and towns have found significant potential to transition communities to a more sustainable future.. To assist Peoria’s future sustainability planning efforts, ASU students from varying disciplines worked to evaluate Peoria’s sustainability planning.
To assist Peoria’s future sustainability planning efforts, ASU students from varying disciplines worked to evaluate Peoria’s sustainability planning.
Taught by Candice Carr Kelman, students analyzed and compared Peoria’s Sustainability Action Plan to other plans across the United States in a comprehensive benchmarking study and developed recommendations to further strengthen the City’s sustainability plan.
Taught by Shirley-Ann Behavresh and Stephanie Pfirman, students elevated the work of a spring 2020 class by investigating and developing an outreach campaign to collect feedback from residents on the City’s Sustainability Action Plan.
Taught by Shirley-Ann Behavresh and Stephanie Pfirman, for the second part of the MSL capstone project, students analyzed the results of the public outreach campaign to inform the development of key performance indicators (KPIs) for intradepartmental sustainability initiatives.
Taught by Malcom Goggin and LaDawn Lingard, Spring 2021: Two graduate students independently researched and developed recommendations for funding strategies and opportunities to elevate the Sustainability Action Plan.
Taught by Mikhail Chester, Spring 2023: Students from the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering collaborated with the City’s Sustainability and Water Conservation Coordinator to review peer community sustainability dashboards and green building codes to recommend strategies for the City of Peoria to build out its sustainability planning.
Spring 2020 final summary report
Sustainability Planning: Best Practices and Insights
Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 final summary report
Sustainable Peoria: Strategic Plan Updates & Program Funding
COVID-19 community assessment
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented challenges and expectations for municipal entities to meet the needs of its residents as they face turbulous changes in their communities. Peoria enlisted the assistance of three ASU courses to tackle various challenges posed by the pandemic to conduct detailed assessments of the community to identify key needs and potential opportunities for Peoria’s intervention.
Taught by Gregory Broberg, Fall 2020: Students examined the lived experiences of Peoria residents throughout the pandemic, particularly by conducting workshops with community organizations to identify the unmet needs of Peoria residents and provided recommendations for connecting local resources with Peoria’s residents and community organizations
Taught by Majia Nadesan, Fall 2020: Students conducted literature reviews to identify best practices in risk communication that will convey safety information and share resources to Peoria’s residents without causing fear or backlash in light of the pandemic. Students developed recommendations to enhance Peoria’s communications channels to share resources and information with the public.
Taught by Deborah Salon, Fall 2020: Businesses were particularly hit by the pandemic. Students evaluated various areas of impact, including restaurants and fitness centers to inform recommendations for the City of Peoria to support their local businesses while activating its key business corridors, like the P83 district.
Fall 2020 final summary report
COVID-19 Effects: Community, Business, and Communication
Community forestry plan review
In the context of rising urban heat, cities and towns are beginning to better understand and appreciate the value and necessity of incorporating shade into urban spaces; especially when it comes from natural sources like trees. Shade is essential for increasing comfort and walkability and helps to decrease the urban heat island effect. The City of Peoria seeks to enhance its shade master planning efforts by enlisting the help of students to develop the foundations of a new urban forestry program.
Taught by Paul Prosser, Fall 2020: Students conducted a literature review of peer communities to identify best practices for shade planning. Students developed a detailed project plan.
Taught by Paul Prosser, Spring 2021: Students continued the work of the Fall 2020 semester by implementing the project plan
Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 final summary report
Sustainable Urban Enhancements: Community Forestry
Affordable housing study
The United States continues to be challenged with providing affordable and accessible housing, especially for disadvantaged minority groups. As Peoria continues to grow, the city remains vigilant in its attention to ensure a viable local housing market that meets the needs of the community. Peoria enlisted the assistance of ASU urban planning students to analyze housing trends to identify existing gaps and recommend interventions for fair housing.
Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) offer a promising intervention for the city to empower its residents to address the needs for attainable housing by renting out additional living units on their properties, such as guest houses. Students studied current housing market trends with an intersectional lens focused on race, social-economic status, and multi-generational needs. Students engaged with Peoria’s Planning & Zoning department to review and advise on the implementation of ADU strategies, as a means of addressing the need for more affordable housing options in Peoria.
Taught by Meagan Ehlenz, Spring 2021: Students conducted peer community analysis by reviewing zoning ordinances related to the implementation of ADU strategies.
Taught by Deirdre Pfeiffer, Spring 2021: Students studied housing trends in Peoria to discover existing gaps in livability as caused by sociological and financial factors.
Spring 2021 final summary report
Sustainable and Affordable Growth in Peoria
Public messaging campaigns
The City of Peoria offers a variety of services that are on the cutting edge of sustainability. Two of its most notable efforts including the recently relaunched POGO neighborhood circulator, and the sustainable waste management programs. To better inform residents of the benefits of these services, students developed messaging campaigns to educate and advance these services to Peoria residents.these services to Peoria residents.
Taught by Nicole Lee, Fall 2021: Students split into two groups to work with city staff on developing messaging campaigns to educate residents about two services: the relaunched POGO circulator and the city’s sustainable waste management programs. Students conducted an Omnibus survey with Peoria residents to better inform and target their messaging campaigns.
Fall 2021 final summary report
Communication Campaigns: Public Transit & Recycling
Community engagement strategy
Peoria’s Office of Communications strives to provide equitable access to information for its residents. However, the team is finding that many residents regularly fail to receive important messages about critical activities, such as public engagement processes, public safety information, road closures, and more. The Communications department seeks ASU support in better understanding Peoria’s hard-to-reach audiences.
Taught by Gregory Broberg, Fall 2021: Students created a research proposal that outlines a community engagement outreach strategy, which will be enacted in the Spring 2021 semester.
Taught by LaDawn Haglund, Fall 2021: Students interviewed Peoria staff about their perceptions of sustainability and human rights in the context of city planning.
Taught by Gregory Broberg, Spring 2022: Undergraduate students conducted a community survey of Peoria residents to determine how they access information and to inform recommendations for Peoria’s communication strategies.
Spring 2022 final summary report
Community Engagement Strategies
Dark sky ordinance study
The International Dark Sky Places conservation program seeks to recognize communities for their night sky preservation efforts through the Dark Sky Community designation. In line with Peoria’s goal to provide a high quality of life for their residents, the Planning and Zoning department seeks to develop a dark sky ordianance to create a night-time eco-friendly environment that allows for serene observation of the night sky.
Taught by Nalini Chhetri, Fall 2021: Students researched the benefits and requirements to attain the Dark Sky designation, and provided recommendations to adapt the existing code.
Fall 2021 final summary report
Protecting Peoria Skies: Drafting a Dark Sky Ordinance
Safe battery storage study
Safe battery storage is vital to reducing extreme events and ensuring the safety of first responders and residents. The storage of batteries, particularly 9-volt batteries, have led to house fires due to unsafe storage practices. One capstone student consulted with Peoria’s Fire-Medical department to examine safety considerations for battery storage.
Taught by Malcolm Goggin and LaDawn Lingard, Fall 2021: Capstone student, Justin, researched safe storage practices for lithium ion batteries (LIB) and recommended safety strategies for Peoria’s Fire-Medical department.
Fall 2021 final summary report
Battery Energy Storage Safety in Residential Settings
Peoria in the news
ASU students to support city’s sustainability projects
Peoria Times,
June 27, 2019
The city of Peoria formally approves Project Cities’ partnership for 2019-2020 school year
Paving a path to the future: Peoria teams with ASU to improve city
Your Valley,
June 26, 2019
Peoria looks forward to new ideas and innovative approaches from ASU Project Cities student
ASU’s Project Cities program connects students with cities for a more sustainable state
The State Press,
February 11, 2019
Project Cities recognizes past and current community partners, while also looking forward to new partnerships for 2019-20 academic year
Related partner communities
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City of Glendale 2018-19
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City of Apache Junction 2017-18
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