Pioneer Valley
Planning Commission

Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, MA

Media Release

CONTACT: Christopher Curtis, Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, (413) 781-6045
Peggy Sloan, Franklin Regional Council of Governments, (413) 774-1194


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 18, 2010

PVPC to Co-Host Design Strategies Workshop Featuring Randall Arendt

The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and the Franklin Regional Council of Governments will host a program describing and illustratingredevelopment design strategies to create mixed-use centers from existing highway strips, to help area towns implement smarter, more sustainable development patterns. The workshop will be held Tuesday, November 9 at Holyoke Community College’s Kittredge Center, Rooms 301-303. The doors will open and a buffet meal will be available at 5:15 p.m. The program will run from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

This free program will be presented by Randall Arendt, author of five books on creative land use planning, who has lectured in 48 states and seven Canadian provinces. The material presented is largely drawn from Arendt’s newest book, Envisioning Better Communities: Seeing More Options, Making Wiser Choices, published by APA Planners’ Press.

The 90-minute presentation is generously illustrated with numerous successful examples, and addresses the visual blight, sprawl, and land use problems of most highway commercial corridors. It will be followed by a 60-minute hands-on design exercise, where participants will apply lessons learned to a typical situation.

This topic is of interest to professional planners, civic leaders, planning board members, landscape architects, engineers, commercial property owners and investors, and developers, who stand to benefit from the redevelopment and adaptive reuse of aging highway commercial corridors into multi-use centers for the twenty-first century, as well as residents who care about the future economic vitality and livability of their communities.

For more information about the presenter, visit www.greenerprospects.com.

The workshop is open to everyone and is free of charge; please pre-register by contacting Sharon Martin at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission at (413) 781-6045 or smartin@pvpc.org. A light buffet meal will be provided at no charge to workshop participants.