Browse Content: Project

When exponential growth and development threatened the quality of life in Bend, Oregon, residents banded together with the city and Steven Ames Planning to create a visionary plan that would protect the unique community character they cherished.

Urban Earth: (re)Presenting our Habitat is a film project aimed at displaying cities as they are. The films portray the realities of urban life by creating films from photos taken every 8 steps on walks through cities.

Biddeford is an old mill city working to reinvent itself through a downtown master planning project, using the Heart & Soul Community Planning approach.

The community of Hillsboro, Oregon needed a strategic vision to direct its rapid growth. With the help of Steven Ames planning, they got just that while simultaneously creating a unique model that broke new ground in the way it engaged the community.

After an overwhelmingly positive response by community members to a proposed visioning initiative, the Manistee County Community Foundation embarked upon a community-driven process to produce strategies and action steps to guide the county’s future.

Concerned by limited amount of parks and open space in many cities across the U.S., the Trust for Public Land founded their Parks for People program to ensure that all citizens, especially children, have access to outdoor space.

Envision Utah is a “Public/Private Partnership formed to guide the development of a broadly and publicly supported Quality Growth Strategy - a vision to protect Utah's environment, economic strength, and quality of life.”

When Damariscotta residents came face-to-face with a community-changing development proposal, they used Heart & Soul Community Planning to identify common values and adapt to growth without losing local character and traditions.

Drawn by the striking landscapes and open space, people are flocking to Victor, whose population since 2000 has swelled by 73%. Residents are now using Heart & Soul Community Planning to build bridges and hold on to the town’s unique character.

For Grand Valley’s 20/20 community visioning endeavor, area municipalities hired James Kent Associates (JKA) to perform a visioning process to identify strategies for achieving the vision and to consider specific actions relevant to each strategy.