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Using ArcGIS to Develop a Holistic Plan for Downtown Revitalization

Fostering and sustaining a vibrant downtown is critical to any planning commission’s vision for having an economically healthy community. That’s why the town of Bennington, Vermont, worked with private and public partners—including Stone Environmental—to create the Bennington Downtown Area-Wide Plan. Using ArcGIS, Stone helped the town perform an environmental and infrastructure assessment. Information related to the appraisal—including data about historical land use, natural resources, infrastructure, and brownfield sites—was collected, stored, and managed in a geodatabase. Using ArcGIS Online, stakeholders were able to quickly access information for any parcel in the downtown area. Once the Downtown Area-Wide Plan was finalized, Stone used ArcGIS maps to bring redevelopment scenarios, proposed in the Plan, to life, providing prospective partners valuable information about the potential redevelopment opportunities. Stone built an interactive story map journal to help communicate the plan effectively to stakeholders. The Story Map, presented at a public meeting to gain community buy-in for the plan, recounts Bennington’s economic history, summarizes the plan’s recommendations, and illustrates the proposed development scenarios.

In 2017, Stone received the Best Use of Story Maps award by Esri for the Bennington Downtown Area-Wide Story Map at the Annual Esri Partner Conference. Read our press release about this award here!

 

Related Links

Bennington Downtown Area-Wide Plan (Interactive Story Map)

Bennington Downtown Area-Wide Plan

Bennington Downtown Area-Wide Brownfield Plan (Stone Case Study)

Spring 2017 ArcGIS Newsletter: "Esri Partners Help Users Make the Maps That Run Their Towns"