Students of the University of Washington Geography Department will evaluate and track Ballard and Crown Hill's development growth during the past 10 years as part of their spring quarter class project.

Dr. Sarah Elwood teaches the class and introduced the assignment at last week's Ballard District Council meeting.

Elwood's spring quarter Geographic Information Systems class will focus on a project that was proposed by the Ballard District Council. It will track recent development trends in the Ballard/Crown Hill area in hopes of getting a better idea of what's been lost and gained from the fairly recent commercial and residential development growth spurt during the last several years.

Chair of the Ballard District Council, Steve Cohn, said the work is especially timely because the city is looking at updating its 38 neighborhood plans, which were adopted in 1999. Information garnered from the study could aid in the strategic revision of the Ballard/Crown Hill plan, he said.

The city's 2008 budget includes about $1.5 million and 10 staff to begin examining the neighborhood plans by dividing the city into six sectors.

Elwood's students will analyze development trends, which will include, among other things, affordability, pace of change, land density increases and shifts between the number of people who own their homes versus rent.

The technology, which students learn how to operate in prerequisite classes, brings together the "power of mapping" with a program that allows information to be evaluated formulaically, said Elwood. The students will be able to examine factors like change in cost per square foot over time.

The target area is from the Ship Canal north to Northwest 110th Street and west from Eighth Avenue Northwest to the Sound. It will examine about a 10-year period, looking at growth between 1998 and into 2008.

First, students will look at the area as a whole and then separate it into smaller focused study areas that will likely include the Crown Hill residential village and the Ballard Hub Urban Village.

City Council member Bruce Harrell, who attended last week's district council meeting, said he was "excited" about tracking growth and is interested in seeing the data in relation to surrounding areas and neighborhoods.

A final presentation is scheduled to be presented to the community on June 11 in Ballard.

"We'll do our best to recruit a terrific team of students," said Elwood.

Rebekah Schilperoort can be reached at 783-1244 or rebekahs@robinsonnews.com.