Your Town Alabama: Designing Our Future

Small Town Design Initiative

Towns, villages and neighborhoods in Alabama, and across America, face an uncertain future—a future which is increasingly threatened by large scale changes in our economy, population shifts, the impact of telecommunications and mass merchandising, and changes in land policy. In the face of these forces, communities find themselves struggling to maintain their vitality and even their sense of identity.

Conceptual Master Plan, Brighton, AL

Whether the threat is sudden growth or stagnation, planning and design decisions can often make the difference between survival and decay, between healthy prosperity and decline. Despite the crucial importance of planning and design, small communities rarely have good access to sources of professional assistance or information regarding the application of planning and design to their communities' issues.

The Small Town Design Initiative is a program begun in the fall of 1999 by the Auburn University Center for Architecture and Urban Studies as a successor to Design Alabama’s Community Design Program. The program makes available the talents and resources of the Center's professional staff, students and other affiliated consultants to assist small towns and neighborhoods with community design services in support of development, revitalization and preservation efforts. The program also provides the necessary design components to inform the development of (or revisions to) comprehensive plans. Through partnering with local and regional planning agencies, the program provides a dimension to planning that all communities need. The Small Town Design Initiative is specifically intended to serve those traditionally under-served small communities for whom this type of design is not always available.

Our goal: To enhance the quality of life in Alabama's small towns and neighborhoods by assisting citizens in identifying options for economic development which retain and support the values of the community.

Conceptual sketch of lake

The Small Town Design Initiative (STDI) is premised on a strong community participation process that helps residents identify the opportunities in their community, contribute to the vision for the community's future, and make judgements about actions and priorities.

The Small Town Design Initiative involves the following six steps:

• Step One - Community Education: and Input Initially, Center staff conduct a series of meetings with community leadership and citizens to "get the pulse" of the community with respect to planning, design and development issues and opportunities. The meetings also involve a program to inform participants of the importance of design in the future of their community.
• Step Two - Documentation and Assessment: In parallel with Step One, the Center documents existing conditions in the community. Information is gathered by field surveys and photography. Map information and data is obtained from the local and regional planning agencies, and other sources. This work is summarized in a series of descriptive and analytical maps and other graphics.
• Step Three - Visioning: The visioning process occurs in one or two community meetings. The findings of the Documentation and Assessment phase are presented as the basis for engaging the residents in a discussion of what should occur in the community and of what the priorities for action should be. The outcome of this process sets the agenda for the remaining steps.
• Step Four - Design Program: The Design Program focuses on issues and opportunities derived from the Visioning process. The design team from the Center prepares overall concepts, specific design proposals and recommendations on topics such as:
  • Community Identity
  • Downtown Preservation, Revitalization and New Development
  • Neighborhood Preservation and Revitalization
  • Housing and New Housing Opportunities
  • Recreation and Open Space
  • Economic Development Opportunities
  • Vehicular and Pedestrian Circulation
  Further, the Design Program describes the recommended strategies for design and implementation, including a specific Action Program identifying activities that can be initiated in the near term to advance the community's goals.
• Step Five - Documentation and Presentation: The results of the Initiative, including the design proposals and recommendations, are summarized in a booklet or poster presented to the community at a public meeting and made available for distribution to every household.
• Step Six- Follow Up: Center staff is available to assist the community in a variety of ways following the completion of the Design Documentation and Presentation - from identifying resources for implementation, facilitating connections between the community and these resources, to providing follow up design work on specific projects where appropriate.

Initial sketch from a Your Town Alabama workshop

Time and Cost
The total time necessary to complete Steps One through Five of the program are typically no longer than three months at an estimated cost between $8,000 and $15,000 per community, approximately 20% of which is for the final publication and presentation materials. The time and cost vary with the extent of the Design Program and the number of copies of the final document desired by the community. The professional time of the Center staff, as well as that of the students, is provided free-of-charge to the community.

Alabama small towns which have participated in the Small Town Design Initiative include the following: Brighton, Chelsea, Cordova, Gadsden, Lanett, Lineville, Marion, Montevallo, Slocomb, and Valley.