ESLC Hosts Successful Town Planning Event
Nearly 200 elected officials and representatives of dozens of planning agencies, environmental groups, design firms, developers and community stakeholder groups convened recently for one of the first Eastern Shore based conferences dedicated to town planning. The conference, titled "About Town: A Gathering to Uplift and Invest in our Eastern Shore Towns" was hosted by the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC). ESLC hosts a planning conference annually and this year’s About Town conference gathered experts, opinion leaders and citizens to discuss strategies, success stories, models and tools for investing in and revitalizing our beloved Eastern Shore towns. Featuring talks and information sharing from both national experts and local opinion leaders, About Town provided attendees a variety of educational opportunities ranging from informative keynotes, panel discussions and interactive workshop sessions. Speakers included nationally recognized experts Jess Zimbabwe, Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute's Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use and Ken Snyder, CEO of PlaceMatters. Maryland Secretary of Planning Richard Hall and various local leaders rounded out the roster of speakers. "This year’s About Town conference represents a new approach to planning for a better Eastern Shore and as ESLC looks to expand its focus to towns and municipalities we are excited about the energy behind this approach from our local planners and decision makers," said Jake Day, ESLC’s Town Planning Manager. "We really wanted our attendees to walk away with an understanding of how we achieve sustainable, safe walkable town design and planning and engage our local communities in achieving this kind of desirable growth. We are grateful to everyone who attended – they made it a great conference!" The winners of ESLC’s Eastern Shore 2010 awards were also honored at a special ceremony during the conference. This year’s award recipients include Muskrat Park, the Mid-Shore Regional Council, Habitat for