What's New?

September, 2007 – Community Visioning Program Applications Available

The Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program is currently accepting applications for the 2008 program. Eligible communities are those with populations of fewer than 10,000, existing transportation-related issues and a committee of volunteers willing to dedicate their time and talent to the visioning process.

The Visioning Program integrates technical landscape planning and design techniques with sustainable community action to empower local leaders through a planning process that results in an enhancement plan that reflects the values and identity of the community.

To learn about the visioning process, click here.

Communities selected to participate are required to contribute $1,000 toward program implementation. In return, the visioning program provides professional services valued at more than $14,000. Since 1996, 137 communities throughout the state have benefited from the program.

One significant change to the Visioning Program in 2008 is the opportunity for communities that completed the Community Visioning Program more than four years ago to re-apply for additional assistance. This opportunity, titled “Renewing Community Vision,” follows the same application process as Community Visioning. However, past communities will be required to demonstrate a continued need for assistance and provide documentation of a $4,000 cash match.

The program is sponsored by the Iowa Department of Transportation in partnership with Iowa State University Landscape Architecture Extension and Trees Forever, an Iowa-based nonprofit with a mission to plant and care for trees and the environment by empowering people, building community, and promoting stewardship.

Communities interested in applying to the 2008 Community Visioning Program or the Renewing Community Vision Program can download an application at by clicking here.

Applications must be postmarked by October 1. Selections will be announced in early November.

November 17, 2006 – Iowa’s Living Roadways Program Celebrates 10 Years

In 2006 the Iowa’s Living Roadways Program celebrates ten years of landscape enhancement in Iowa’s rural communities. This important milestone was the theme of the program’s annual celebration held at the Gateway Hotel in Ames on November 17. During this event, representatives from the communities of Volga and Ackley, both of which participated in the Community Visioning Program and the Projects Program, told their success stories, and program collaborators shared their experiences with the program. Community participants, landscape architects, student interns, and collaborators from ISU, Trees Forever, the Iowa DOT, and the Federal Highway Administration attended.

October 2006 – New in Print

Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program Process Manual
The Community Visioning Program Process Manual is a tool developed for facilitating community visioning, a participatory process that engages local residents in the development of a transportation enhancement concept plan for their community.

Although the manual specifically outlines the planning process used by the Community Visioning Program, the methods used may be helpful to city and county planners, local officials, design professionals, and others engaged in community development programs. The visioning process was designed with the dynamics of small-town relationships in mind.

The Process Manual is structured as a workbook that can assist facilitators, local officials and volunteers, and other stakeholders in small communities as they negotiate through the public participation process. Readers will learn how participatory processes work and the roles of the various players, such as facilitators, community leaders, stakeholders, and professional designers.

The manual is available through ISU Extension Publications for $20 and can be ordered from the Publications Distribution Web site: www.extension.iastate.edu/store.  When requesting the publication please reference PM 2029.

Street Design in Community Contexts: A Literature Review

This literature review is the second of a series of publications created to introduce to an inclusive audience design principles for enhancing roadsides, streets, and communities. The series is targeted to designers, government staff, politicians, and the public—that is, anyone interested in community betterment through design.

Street Design in Community Contexts looks at street design from viewpoints outside the driver’s seat, touching on issues such as economic development, public health and safety, transportation choices, street life and culture, and aesthetics. The publication introduces readers to ten of the essential written works on streets undertaken since 1960 and provides a list of Internet sites and publications.

The first publication in this series, Roadside Design for Communities: Planting Guidelines for Community Beautification, describes how plants can be used to improve community image and introduces readers to the issues and possibilities of planting along community roadsides.

Street Design in Community Contexts (PM 2030, $8) and Roadside Design in Communities (PM 2003, $5) are available through ISU Extension Publications and can be ordered from the Publications Distribution Web site: www.extension.iastate.edu/store.

May 2006 – Badenhope Earns Honor Award from Regional ASLA

Julia Badenhope, program director of the Community Visioning Program, was recognized by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) at the First Annual Central States ASLA Conference. Badenhope received an honor award in the planning category for the planning process used for community visioning. The award recognizes professional activities that lead to, guide, or evaluate landscape architecture design. Recipients of the award demonstrate professional activities that promote quality planning and design that is functional and environmentally responsible, while improving public health and safety.