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What is Community & Countryside?

Community & Countryside is a two-day educational workshop during which 30 community leaders learn from top experts about the best tools for community revitalization and historic preservation, and how to solve land-use management and community design challenges currently facing small towns and rural communities.

"We've made enormous use of the information and materials provided by the National Trust during our workshop in Shepherdstown. Our community is making major strides to preserve our heritage and enhance local quality of life."

Neal Martineau
Shepherdstown Town Council

The goal of Community & Countryside is to provide community leaders with additional tools to respond to and anticipate local growth in ways that can conserve and enhance the historic, natural, and scenic assets of their communities. Using case studies, illustrated presentations, and small group activities, the program focuses intensively on the best practices of land-use planning, historic preservation, and community design.  Major topics include:

• Design Changes in Rural America: The Forces at Work
• Dollars and Sense of Growing Smarter
• Design in Historic Areas: On Being Good Neighbors
• Retail Mix and Franchise Design in Historic Areas
• New Roadways and Bridges in Historic Places

Who should attend?

Led by national experts, the programs are designed for local elected and appointed decision-makers, including town council and county board members, planning and zoning commissioners, county attorneys, town managers and county administrators, as well as local civic and business leaders.  All participants must attend the full two-day program.

Why should I participate?

Community & Countryside focuses on an important aspect of community spirit and community integrity: the process of design. The program aims specifically to introduce community decision makers and leaders to the role of design in community planning.  The faculty is drawn from national, state, and local experts, giving participants a balanced national perspective and a network of regional and local resources for the future.

"The Community & Countryside workshop convened in Orange County recharged my batteries and has been a boon to the community. More than ever, local leaders are working together across jurisdictional boundaries to preserve Virginia's heritage and enhance our quality of life."

Hap Connors
Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors 

Where and When?

The first program was held in Orange, Virginia, in September 2006.  The four additional workshops have been planned in small towns and rural communities along the Journey Through Hallowed Ground corridor in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

The next Community & Countrysides will be offered September 12-13, 2008, in Warrenton, Virginia, and November 14-15, 2008, In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  For more information contact:

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