SILVER SPRING, MD – To provide another opportunity for residents to have a voice in planning their communities, Montgomery County Planning Director Rollin Stanley has created a new blog that will highlight new ways of looking at growth.
The webpage provides a forum for the director to share examples of strategies that work well in communities, from Silver Spring’s thriving downtown to public plazas in Vienna, Austria. Stanley will draw from his experiences at the helm of the county’s planning agency for the past 2½ years, and as the planning director of St. Louis, a planner in Toronto and a frequent traveler to some of the world’s most vibrant cities and communities.
Like all blogs, the webpage encourages comment, providing residents who may not typically get engaged in community planning an opportunity to be heard.
The first post draws from a recent presentation Stanley made to the White Flint Partnership about public spaces in dense communities. The post links to a video of Stanley’s PowerPoint presentation as well as video clips from downtown Silver Spring and Paris, France.
Stanley has encouraged his staff to take a new perspective on county planning, given changing demographics and economics. Last spring, he launched a ReThink Montgomery initiative featuring nine elements of sustainability to form balanced communities, and directed staff to incorporate them into all their work.
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