Title: What’s to Become of Small Towns? | RRM
Headings: What’s to Become of Small Towns?
What’s to Become of Small Towns?
Acting Regionally
Plan Locally

Content: The vision should be concise and clear, not only detailing what the town wants to become at a quantitative level (size, demographic, etc.), but also what it will look like. The vision should take into account the 3 “C’s” of community– Community Values, Community Culture and Community Identity. Finally, it should consider how to maximize environmental and economic assets and how to emphasize a unique sense of place. Compact Growth
City-centered growth really means compact growth. To effectively accomplish compact growth, community edges should be clearly defined. These can be natural or manmade but must be defensible from a policy perspective and then implemented thoughtfully. For example, the City of Turlock (in the Central Valley of California) chose a road and irrigation canal along their northern border as the edge, providing an obvious physical demarcation as well as the opportunity to buffer the adjoining agricultural properties to the north. This buffer also became an important element of the city’s trail system. An additional suggestion for planning compact growth is to avoid segmenting new growth into isolated neighborhoods, and instead integrate new growth into the existing urban form.