Smart Growth Day at Salisbury University
Summary from Panel Discussion
Growing Smart: Small Towns Making a Big Difference
This panel focused on small towns making a big difference in Maryland’s future.
Organized by the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, a group of pioneering town leaders
spoke to showcase how strong land use planning can strengthen a community as well as
help ensure a vibrant future. Featured were:
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Dr. Russ Brinsfield, Mayor, Town of Vienna – spoke about his town’s work to
comprehensively plan for their future through a proactive and inclusive visioning
process. Resulting is a clear picture of the town’s future and inspired has been
protection of a greenbelt around the edge of the community.
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Ms. Caroline Cline, Mayor, Town of East New Market – spoke eloquently of the
history and character of her historic town, highlighting the care citizens take in
stewarding their community. Projects like the downtown streetscaping and recent
design workshop were described.
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Ms. Margo Bailey, Mayor, Town of Chestertown – spoke about her town’s efforts to
create a vibrant and sustainable future. Included a summary of a recent community
visioning effort to shape growth on the town edge and a town-wide commitment to
reducing carbon emissions.
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Mr. Bill Kastning, Director of Planning and Codes, Town of Denton – told the story
of a community changing direction in growth management. After a set of large
annexations in the 1980’s, Denton is turning its focus and investment to its
downtown. Featured were such projects as main street efforts, design pattern book,
and innovative community outreach tools.
The primary recommendations from these Eastern Shore towns were:
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Towns play a pivotal role in smart growth. The decisions of these small towns
collectively are one of the primary drivers of how our growth is managed in the
region.
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The featured towns have been successful in answering their toughest planning
questions by engaging the richness and wisdom of their community – topics included
greenbelts, community visioning, and design.
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These small towns are facing national scale issues with rural scale resources – their
commitment to and deep care for their communities has helped them overcome
growth management challenges that threatened to erase their character and
uniqueness. These communities are brewing with entrepreneurialism and innovation.