01-08-07

Towns selected for 2007 community visioning program

AMES, Iowa - Twelve Iowa communities have been selected to participate in the Iowa's Living Roadways Community Visioning Program in 2007.

The award-winning program integrates technical landscape planning and design techniques with sustainable community action to assist community leaders and volunteers in making sound and meaningful decisions about the local landscape.

The 2007 visioning communities are Balltown, Franklin, Guttenberg, Lake View, Lamoni, Manly, Marble Rock, Monona, Palo, Silver City, Tipton and Wellman.

The program is sponsored by the Iowa Department of Transportation in partnership with Iowa State University Landscape Architecture Extension and Trees Forever, an Iowa-based nonprofit environmental advocacy organization. In addition, professional landscape architects offer expertise in creating conceptual design plans for the communities.

To qualify for the visioning program, a community must have a population of fewer than 10,000, existing transportation-related issues and a committee of volunteers willing to dedicate their time and talent to the visioning process.

Since 1996, 125 Iowa communities have benefited from the visioning program.

In 2006, the program received a national outstanding planning award from the American Planning Association (APA). In 2005, the community visioning program was named outstanding program by the Iowa Chapter of the APA. Additional information about the program is online at communityvisioning.org.

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