About the Center

Enriching communities through design, education, conservation and leadership

What is the Center for Towns?

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy is launching the Center for Towns to catalyze a healthy, vibrant and sustainable region through leadership development, community design, and on-the-ground projects.

Vision

In 2050, the Eastern Shore region’s towns will be models of sustainable, walkable, diverse, well-defined and vibrant communities within our beautiful rural landscape.

Purpose

The Center for Towns supports and develops local leaders in establishing policies, creating and implementing visions for transforming their communities into vibrant, sustainable and well-defined places.

Audiences

The Center for Towns will work with the diverse communities in Eastern Shore towns. Much of our programming will be targeted to town officials and staff, planners, architects, economic development professionals. Our community design and community projects will incorporate those audiences, but are designed to understand and identify the needs and desires of residents and community groups and to turn them into well-articulated visions and realities.

Background

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy has been focusing more time and staff energy to growing relationships with towns – building internal expertise and programs to match needs as well as political savvy.  By working directly with these population centers, we want to learn how conservation can enrich more lives – whether it is through more parks and green spaces in our town centers, better planning so our schools and roads are not choked with crowds, to ensuring housing that is both appealing and affordable to the local population.  This work opens up a whole new spectrum of ideas, people, and issues that are very exciting but more importantly gives our organization the opportunity for a deeper reach and greater effectiveness. This change is not going to be easy, and will come with bumps and bruises as we learn our way. At the end of the day, what’s most important is doing all we can to make sure our children get to raise their families in a place still known as the “the land of pleasant living.