Rural Montana Life Community Groups
The Town of [Wild Horse] Plains, in the Cabinet Mountians Valley of western Montana, was named for the thousands of wild horses grazing in the mild winter months a century ago. The residents of the Plains area are the members of community groups who vision, plan, and work together on community goals.
SMART GROWTH SELF-ASSESSMENT FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES PDF
Environmental Protection Agency
SMART GROWTH SELF-ASSESSMENT
FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES
The Smart Growth Self-Assessment for Rural Communities is a compilation of strategies, organized by 11 common “goal areas,” that villages, towns, and small cities can use to evaluate their existing policies to create healthy, environmentally resilient, and economically robust places.
What does it do?
This self-assessment helps communities identify gaps in their policies, plans, codes, and zoning regulations by asking a series of “Yes” or “No” questions.
All communities begin by completing the self-assessment’s Revitalize Village and Town Centers section, which gives a baseline indication of smart growth development policies within the jurisdiction.
This self-assessment goes beyond regulatory issues to help communities take stock of their local initiatives, strategies, and plans. Rural communities are not all the same, and this tool shares practices that a variety of rural places have used to improve their economies, environment, health, and quality of life. It includes resources and examples from communities around the country.
Who should use it?
This self-assessment tool is broad and interdisciplinary. Each section focuses on a specific set of issues and will likely require input from multiple parts of the local government, as well as from community residents and other stakeholders. Although a community does not necessarily need to complete all sections of the self-assessment, this tool works best when communities use it comprehensively, and a local leader facilitates the process, such as a mayor, city manager, town planner, or anyone with a broad community focus.