Area-Wide Planning

Area-Wide Brownfield Planning provides communities with a guide and vision for economic revitalization of vacant or underutilized properties that are in close proximity to or within downtown areas. Area-Wide Plans provide information and analysis on existing environmental, infrastructure, and market conditions, to identify opportunities and challenges presented by these conditions.

Common elements include:

• Existing Conditions Inventory and Analysis that evaluate environmental, land use, and infrastructure conditions & provide a market overview
• Redevelopment Scenarios and Project Feasibility Analyses, which include: key site selection, stakeholder meetings, community engagement, conceptual plans, feasibility analysis, and project renderings
• Implementation Plan, including identifying eligible funding mechanisms for brownfield redevelopment and schedule. 

Using an Area-Wide Planning Approach to Overcome the Traditional Barriers to Redevelopment

Typically, Area-Wide Plans identify key properties whose redevelopment will provide much-needed services for a community and spur additional investment of neighboring properties. Conceptual redevelopment plans and financial feasibility analyses are prepared for each target site. Together with a solid implementation strategy, the result is used to attract or recruit development partners.

To ensure the work products are easily accessible for all users, Stone routinely develops a web application to broadcast our findings and communicate progress. Beginning with an interactive map of the properties of interest, this application will use web journals and archival images to put these properties in geographic and historic context. These “Story Maps” can be a great means of keeping the community up to date by providing active links to pertinent project deliverables and attractive content. To learn more, see the Northfield Area-Wide Plan Story Map, prepared for the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission.