Age as a determinant of the spatial preference surface for high rise apartment locations in Victoria, B.C.
Date
1973
Authors
Derbyshire, Christine Mary
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Abstract
In recent years the increasing number of high rise apartment developments have dominated the urban landscape and become the subject of considerable controversy in urban politics. Events in Victoria and elsewhere in Canada, over the last five years, have demonstrated that local citizens, both as individuals and community groups are frequently oppos e d to the proposed locations of high rise apartment developments. This thesis examined public preference for high rise location in Greater Victoria with the objective of providing a gauge of public opinion on questions of location and aesthetics.
Past studies of high rise living indicate that socio- economic variables play a role in the selection of this housing type, particularly aspects of age such as life style and life cycle. Geography preference studies provide a methodology which can be used to measure public opinion. Through the analysis of individual preference surface maps a composite index of locational preference could be derived for the community.
The study investigated the preference surface for high rise residential location in Victoria, B. C. and examined the relationship of the overall preference pattern to various socio-economic and spatial variables. Since age has been shown to be such an important factor in past studies, the sample was stratified according to the age structure of Greater Victoria and data were examined in terms of the whole sample and three age groups. The sample size was 101 with 27 in the 19-34 age group, 50 in the 35-64 age group, and 24 in the over 65 age group.
The first step in the analysis was to construct preference surfaces for the whole sample and individual age groups. These showed that there were definite areas of preferred and objected location. Since age specific patterns of preference existed within the sample the next step was to examine relationships of these patterns with various socio-economic and spatial predictor variables. A stepwise regression analysis indicated that predictor variables differed according to age, and that high levels of explained variance were obtained for some groups.
The study concludes that the public prefers specific locations for new residential high rise developments and that these preference surfaces do differ according to age. The findings of this study indicate that preference measurernents can provide means of gauging public opinion on locational and aesthetic aspects of high rise development which could be used as citizen input into the future land use planning of cities.