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Posts Tagged ‘National Trust’
Green neighborhoods
June 12th, 2009
How “green” is your neighborhood? A new LEED certification program for Neighborhood Developments (ND) will help communities figure that out.
As many are aware, the Rural Learning Center has been developing a LEED platinum Conference and Training Center in Howard, SD. The LEED certification program uses levels (platinum, gold, silver, and certified) to help people understand how “green” a building is. This new guide will focus on neighborhoods.
I haven’t spent much time thinking about how green our rural communities are or if this rating system works for rural places. I do, however, like that the guide takes walkability and historic preservation into consideration. It would be fun to hear what others, who know more, have to say.
The plan is in its pilot stage, and the US Building Council is calling for public comment.
I became aware of the guide because the National Trust for Historic Preservation is requesting people to comment on the need to strengthen some preservation aspects to the guide. To learn more, check out this blog post.
But, if you want to comment, don’t wait long. You only have until Sunday, June 14th.
Photo Credit: Udall Legacy Bus Tour/Flick
Resources:
- US Building Council’s LEED website
- The latest version of LEED Neighborhood Development
- Playbook for Green Building + Neighborhoods (a guide for local governments)
- “The Main Street Approach” (by Eric Ambroson)
Tags: green building, Leed Platinum, main street, National Trust, Rural Learning Center
Posted in Community Development, Rural | Comments (2)
Main Street Approach (part 2) — Tips & Tricks
March 11th, 2009
The following is a continuation of an interview conducted with Eric Ambroson on the use of the Main Street Approach, which was developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Eric is a community development specialist with Planning and Development District III in Yankton, SD. Part I to this inview can be found here.
What tips or recommendations would you give to a community using the Main Street Approach as a revitalize strategy for its main street district?
We seem to have a mode of thinking in South Dakota that, once we get an idea, it should happen immediately and at little expense. The Main Street approach is incremental; it is not designed to produce immediate change. Because they often fail to address the underlying causes of commercial district decline, expensive improvements, such as downtown malls or event centers, do not always generate the desired economic results. In order to succeed, a long-term revitalization effort requires careful attention to every aspect of downtown – a process that takes time and requires leadership and local capacity building.
A couple of tips that small towns in South Dakota can use in their revitalization efforts include:
Start small: By focusing toward small, achievable goals, you can develop the skills to deal with more difficult, complex development issues. If you work on a large goal to start with, such as renovating a large, expensive “white elephant” building, chances are you are going to lose momentum and the whole group may get frustrated and give up. Plus, when you start out, you will be under the community’s microscope. So, it’s better to celebrate a series of small successes (even if it’s an event called “Pick Gum Wrappers off the Sidewalk Day”) than to drown in the public’s criticism of an overwhelming project.
Develop a reasonable budget and expectations: Contrary to my opening line to your question, we sometimes think that everything costs too much. We develop a self-defeating attitude – “We can’t do that because it’s too expensive,” or “That’s too good for us, let’s do something cheaper and easier.” How can we afford to NOT revitalize our downtowns?! A new main street program will not have a $50,000 budget to start with. They may only have $5,000. So be it. Starting with a small budget and doing small things is better than ignoring the needs of your downtown.
A lot of the visual materials that we see in the Main Street publications give the allusion that downtowns need to look like one of the grand avenues of Paris. Small towns in South Dakota are not going to develop Parisian thoroughfares out of 19th century buildings and wide streets. But, simple proper façade improvements and a pedestrian-oriented streetscape will do wonders for a small town. If local groups took a hard look their downtown and sprinkled a little bit of street life on Main Street, it would do wonders for their town. People attract people, and seeing people active in a downtown may compel one to stop and check it out.
Starting a Main Street program is realistic as long as you set expectations low and develop a long term vision for downtown.
What resources are there to help a community establish a Main Street program?
The best place to start is the National Trust’s Main Street Center website. They have a wealth of knowledge available. For anyone wanting to start a local organization, I highly recommend the publication, Revitalizing Downtown. It is an excellent primer on the Main Street Four Point Approach and it shows you how to develop an organization, whether it’s an entirely separate organization (such as Mitchell Main Street and Beyond), or as a series of subcommittees within an existing organization such as a development corporation or chamber of commerce.
Unfortunately we do not have a statewide coordinating Main Street Program. If we did, every South Dakota town could access professional advice on downtown revitalization. Wyoming, Iowa, and Nebraska have statewide programs housed in their departments of economic development. Iowa’s program has been a model for other states for several years. Their statewide conference, the Iowa Downtown Summit, is usually held in August. It is very informative and fun.
Finally, there are some communities in South Dakota that operate an organized revitalization program. They include; Sioux Falls, Brookings, Watertown, Aberdeen, Mitchell, and Yankton. It would be worth it to check each of them out.
Tags: main street approach, National Trust, retail, South Dakota
Posted in Economic Development, Rural | Comments (2)
The Main Street Approach
March 10th, 2009
Downtown and Main Street revitalization is on a lot of people’s minds. Everybody wants their main street to be vibrant, but most of us don’t know what we can do to make it happen. Ask Eric Ambroson of Planning and Development District III in Yankton, SD, and he’ll recommend you consider implementing the National Trust’s Main Street Approach.
Since Eric has worked with the program himself, I asked him to share some information with us in the following interview.
Eric Ambroson, community development specialist
What did District III do to implement (or promote) the Main Street Program in your region?
I have to give credit Doris Roden, former Director of Downtown Brookings, for bringing in Stephanie Redman and John Mitterholzer of the National Trust’s Main Street Center in 2001 to present information about the Main Street Program to a group of South Dakota development professionals. They really opened my eyes to the potential of downtown revitalization. The troubling fact was that South Dakota did not have a central organization to work with communities on the Main Street Approach. The group agreed that the state should have a coordinating program, but not much was done about it.
A couple of years later, District III applied to USDA Rural Development for a grant to do the same things a statewide program would do. We were awarded a grant in 2004. The idea is that we would go to a few communities and work with them on setting up a local organization that follows the Four Point Approach.
In 2006, District III hosted a Main Street Basic Training conference in Mitchell. The conference focused on the details of the Four Point Approach to downtown revitalization. Lauren Adkins and Todd Barmann from the Main Street Center shared the presentation duties and were extremely knowledgeable and helpful.
One success story that came out of this process is the Mitchell Main Street and Beyond organization. I met with them periodically for one year, helping them get organized. They are a great group to work with! Everyone there is energized and committed to moving downtown Mitchell forward.
Eric gave me permission to post the above presentation he made to the South Dakota Municipal League in 2007. Slides 12 & 13 reference Four Point Approach Eric describes below.
Can you describe how the Main Street Program works and why it’s important to rural communities?
In 1977, the National Trust worked on a pilot Main Street Program in three communities; one of which was Hot Springs, SD. Each community had their own success story: sales tax increases, building restorations, and private investment. By 1980, they had essentially “patented” a Four Point Approach to downtown revitalization. The National Trust’s Main Street Center went national shortly after.
The Four Point is a comprehensive strategy that is tailored to meet local needs and opportunities. It encompasses work in four distinct areas – Design, Economic Restructuring, Promotion, and Organization – that are combined to address all of the commercial district’s needs. A main street program will organize a committee for each of the Four Points. It’s important to recruit people that are interested in each Point and willing to work with volunteers to achieve the goals of the organization.
The topics covered in the Four Points are essential to a successful revitalization program. If a community does not address all of them, they may be setting themselves up for failure. Each point acts like a spoke in a wheel; each must be provided equal attention. For example, if a community is “event-heavy,” it may fail to recognize the importance of attractive storefronts or developing public-private partnerships to the group’s mission.
The Four Point model is an excellent teaching tool for any community development effort. For example, Habitat for Humanity uses a similar model in their housing efforts, except the key elements of their approach focus on family selection, nurturing, homebuilding, and finance. Any group that is working towards the betterment of their town can reflect on the issues that are critical to their development mission and design a committee structure to realize their vision.
Can small, rural towns implement the Main Street program? Do you know of any examples of towns under 4000 that have had success with the program?
Absolutely! Size does not matter with the Main Street Program. The only differences between a large urban area and a small town organization are the scope of their work plan and their budget. Referring back to the Iowa Main Street Program, there are several small communities that have received assistance from the state coordinating program.
Check out this link to see how the program’s impact on Iowa’s small towns.
Most of the rural communities served by the Iowa Main Street Program observed a net gain in business startups and jobs created. Each community reported numerous building rehabilitations. The most telling sign of success is the amount of private dollars invested in building acquisition and rehab. This is the most critical lesson that South Dakota towns can benefit from; if the public can play a small role in spurring private investment, the benefits realized by the community will come back in spades. You will notice in the report that most of the rural communities have been doing this for at least ten years, which brings up the principles of incremental steps and stick-to-itiveness (in the next post).
Planning and Development District III is a planning district located in Yankton, SD. Eric is a Community Development Specialist, specializing in town planning and design as well as specific studies such as strategic housing plans.
Note: Check back tomorrow. Eric will share some “Tips and Tricks” concerning the Main Street Program.
Tags: Brookings SD, downtown revitalization, main street approach, National Trust, retail
Posted in Economic Development, Rural | Comments (0)