Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Americana
The Problem With the Pattern We’ve Built Rural sprawl does not look like urban sprawl, but it produces many of the same outcomes: longer distances between people and services, higher per-capita infrastructure costs, degraded natural lands, and built environments that make daily life harder for anyone who cannot drive. The pattern is familiar across rural […]
What Does a Healthy Rural Community Actually Look Like? – JC Shepard May 2026 · Week 1 of 5 — Health, Parks & the Outdoors What Does a Healthy Rural Community Actually Look Like? Planners have long known that where you live shapes how long you live. Here is how smaller communities are using real […]
How Small Towns Can Plan for People, Land, and Legacy This article continues our November series: From Ideas to Action — A Month of Praxis and Implementation in Rural Communities. In week three, we focus on turning planning theories into useful rural zoning strategies — the essential tools that help small towns manage growth, protect […]
Energy development, smart growth and transportation planning were the topics of choice at the 2012 Western Planner Conference in Billings, Montana. Western Planner brings together professionals from just west of SRDC’s borders to Alaska, many of whom work in small towns and rural areas. Former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening, now President of the Smart Growth […]
[v=6XRjatW_N9M] I had the opportunity to participate in one of Charles Marohn and Ben Oleson’s Curbside Chat presentations last week at the Minnesota State Planning Conference in St. Cloud. It was much better attended—and presented—than my own session. He gave us a sneak preview of his new companion booklet to the series, in which he […]
