Here's Where You Can Go...

... for the best information about sensible growth on the internet. The first website to visit if you are seriously interested in topics about building a better community and managing growth belongs to the Campaign for Sensible Growth. You will notice immediately that the Village of Elburn is featured in an article on CSG home page. It was no small task to be featured on this website.

Campaign manager Ellen Schubart, and a panel of design, development and planning experts gave Elburn a community "CAT scan" last fall. Participating in this dynamic process was fascinating, and we are awaiting publication of a final written report from the expert panel this spring.

After you bookmark this site, be sure to sign up for the CSG's super sharp e-mail listserv. It will show automatically up in your inbox each week. I guarantee it will keep you following links and reading about community growth and sprawl related issues until your next listserv arrives.

The second site I want to showcase for interested Elburn bloggers to explore is the website at Smart Growth America. This is a national site with a "boat load" of information about smart growth principles and topics. I prefer using the term "sensible growth" rather than "smart growth," but I guess that is just a personal bias. You should also try the free newsletter on this site. I subscribe to this too, but I like the CSG's listserv better because it has more links to local updates and information.

Then I suggest you take a look at the Building Better Communities Network. I especially like this site because,...well,...it's "Better, not Bigger." "BnB" is Elburn's motto respectfully borrowed from growth expert Eben Fodor. There is a free newsletter to subscribe to here also, and an interesting section filled with recent NIMBY reports. But, while checking out their homepage, I want to point you towards two other very interesting community planning links on the BBCN site. The first link to look for is the PlannersWeb Key Sites for Citizen Planners. Click on the Michigan Land Use Institute link under "An Eclectic Mix." The MLI just came out with a report in January, 2005 called "Follow the Money, Uncovering and Reforming Michigan's Sprawl Subsidies." Here is one of its interesting conclusions. With suburban sprawl we all need wheels to get around, so "Sprawl Disables Everyone." They are really on the mark with that slogan.

The last "monster" resource link to check out is Planetizen's Top 50 Websites. Don't worry, I don't know how to say their name either. It is supposed to be some kind of crazy contraction between plan, net and citizen. I guess that makes "Planetizen" a resource site for "internet planning citizens" of the future. Boy, somebody really popped a gasket coming up with that. Now the organization is stuck with a name that nobody can pronounce. Be sure to bookmark this site because you'll never be able to find it again phonetically. Regardless, Planetizen has created an exhaustive list of planning links on just about any topic.

There you have it. I've told you where to go. So have great time surfing these excellent planning websites. Remember "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." There are generous resources and solid research documents out there to help us make the decisions facing Elburn in the future. We have to work a little to dig them out, but it is well worth it.