A walking tour at a previous Cool & Connected workshop in Erwin, TN.
Unicoi County (Town of Erwin), Tennessee: Since our previous visit, Erwin has developed high speed broadband access that has helped reduce the downtown vacancy (by storefront) by 50 percent. Ready to expand on its partnership with Smart Growth America, the community is now looking to create additional housing within Erwin to allow the local workforce the opportunity to live where they work, regardless of income. We will work with Erwin and the greater county to create a plan for infill development and building reuse that results in additional housing units.
This new round of assistance builds on previous successful work with local communities under other federal grant programs. Each community receives a number of preparatory calls, a two-day visit by our experts, and a detailed memo with actionable next steps for the community to take. Over the next year, the six communities provide us with three updates on their progress. Finally, each community will send two representatives to Washington, DC for a meeting early next year to share their individual experiences; discuss successes and failures; and learn from our entire team of experts, each other, and from USDA experts.
The workshops are funded at no cost to the host community by a grant that Smart Growth America (SGA) received through USDA’s Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI) program. To learn more about Smart Growth America’s work under this program, please visit this page.
Interested in bringing one of the above workshops to your own community? For more information on our technical assistance program and how your community can request assistance from us on a variety of land use, development and transportation challenges, please visit this page.