June 10, 2009

For more information, contact: BJ Fields, 317-692-7834

Jamie Palmer, 317-261-3046

Mindy Reef, 317-692-7822, mreef@infarmbureau.org 

Community planning workshops scheduled

“Rolling Up Our Sleeves: The Nitty Gritty Work of Plan Commissions,” a workshop for anyone interested or involved in community planning, will take place on July 14 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time at the Indiana Farm Bureau building in downtown Indianapolis.

The one-day session covers the legal framework as well as tools and techniques associated with effective community planning. Sessions will be presented on the basic legal framework of planning, comprehensive planning, zoning, subdivision control and defensible decision-making.

Presenters will be K.K. Gerhart-Fritz and Mark Spelbring. Gerhart-Fritz is principal and owner of The Planning Workshop. She regularly provides training to citizen planners around the state and chairs the citizen training committee of the Indiana Chapter of the American Planning Association. Spelbring is county extension director in Parke County and has extensive experience in land-use issues. He has been a member of two county plan commissions for 20 years and is a member of the Purdue Land Use Team.

For more information or to register, visit the IFB website at www.infarmbureau.org and click on “Public Policy.” For a paper copy of the registration form, call B.J. Fields at 317-692-7834. Single registration is $80 per person. Local government officials will receive one free registration for every three paid registrations from their office, but each participant must fill out a separate registration form. The deadline to register is July 7.

Two additional Nitty Gritty workshops have also been planned. On June 20, the program will be held in Greencastle; and on the evenings of Sept. 8 and Sept. 15, the program will be held in Greensburg. For more information on those meetings, contact Jamie Palmer at 317-261-3046 or jpalmer@iupui.edu.

The program is sponsored by Indiana Farm Bureau, IUPUI Center for Urban Policy and the Environment, Ball State University College of Architecture and Planning, Indiana Chapter of the American Planning Association, Indiana Land Resources Council, Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service and the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors.

-30-