City of Hillsdale Small Town Design Initiative
By Christine Bowman - Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Through the MSU Small Town Design Initiative (STDI) the City of
Hillsdale has been selected to work with students from the MSU
Landscape Architecture Program. Over a several month period,
the students will create visual representations reflective of what
the community feels certain key areas of the City should look and
feel like.
In mid-December, City and community representatives traveled to
MSU in East Lansing where the students presented their initial
design concepts. Large scale, color reproductions of the
designs are available for public viewing and comment on the
1st floor of City Hall and the Hillsdale Community
Library during regular business hours.
The comment period will culminate in a community-wide feedback
session on Thursday, January 14th from 7:00 PM to 8:30
PM at the Hillsdale Community Library where the public will be able
to discuss their likes and dislikes of the design concepts with the
STDI staff and students; this will be a joint meeting with the
Village of Jonesville. The final designs will be unveiled in
April 2010 at which time the community will be presented with 80
-100 "before" and "after" photos. These images will be used
as a springboard for the revitalization of these areas and to
provide a framework from which local assets, both public and
private, can be leveraged with other organizations and /or funding
sources, to undertake such projects.
To view a PDF image of the
designs and the comment card, click here.
Approximately 60 other communities in Michigan have leveraged
the results of the STDI process to undertake small and large scale
community improvement projects ranging from simple community-wide
clean up days to completion of complex infrastructure improvement
projects.
For more information about the STDI, visit the program on the web or contact
Christine Bowman, Economic Development Director at (517) 437-6479
or via email at cbowman@ci.hillsdale.mi.us.