Your Town Alabama: Designing Our Future

Design Guidebook Helps Communities Enhance Their Appearance & Protect Natural Resources Continued

“We wanted a tool that would provide local decision-makers and citizens with a menu of options,” explains Joan Chadde, Education Program Coordinator for the Western Upper Peninsula Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. “People don’t realize they have choices. The choice is not whether to grow, but how? What kind of development? Where should you put it? What should it look like?”
The Design Guidelines guidebook may be purchased for $5 each by credit card, check, or purchase order.  Send payment to: Joan Chadde at jchadde@mtu.edu, fax 906-487-1620, or phone 906-487-3341. For more information, visit: http://www.wupcenter.mtu.edu/.
The guidebook is being disseminated at citizen planning workshops, conferences, middle/high school classes and teacher professional development. The Smart Growth Network selected the guidebook for inclusion on their Smart Growth Shareware CD being distributed to 10,000 communities nationwide.
“Thank you for the excellent resource. My presentation using the pictures and recommendations from the guidebook was very well received by everyone, local government officials and citizens alike. I am certainly going to recommend this guidebook to communities in both of my counties,” states Jasneet Sharma, Land Policy Educator for Michigan State University Extension.
Funding for the development and publication of the guidebook was provided by The Dunn Foundation, Wege Foundation, Smart Growth Network, and Americana Foundation, along with contributions from the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, Central Lake Superior Watershed Partnership, Houghton Rotary Club, and League of Women Voters of the Copper Country.
For More Information: Joan Chadde 906-487-3341 or jchadde@mtu.edu