The Office of Community and Rural Affairs on Wednesday announced five finalists have completed the last step in the Stellar Communities designation process. This program encourages Hoosier communities to work towards comprehensive regional planning.
“The respective regions worked diligently together, which was evident in the delivery of each presentation,” said Jodi Golden, Executive Director of OCRA. “I’d like to applaud the hard work, collaboration and commitment from the five finalists this year and I look forward to seeing their plans be put into action.”
Each region’s leadership team presented an executive summary of their Regional Development Plan to OCRA and the state stellar partner agencies. This plan is a four-year comprehensive community revitalization strategy that identifies projects, an implementation schedule, cost, funding resources and the significance of each project to the community.
Through the annual designation, the Stellar Communities Program helps communities by utilizing previous planning efforts, leveraging existing assets, fostering regional investments and stimulating continued growth.
The Stellar Communities finalist regions are:
- Health and Heritage – comprised of the city of Greenfield, the town of Fortville and Hancock County;
- Eastern Indiana – comprised of the town of Liberty, cities of Richmond, Rushville and Union City, and Randolph County;
- Marshall County Crossroads – comprised of the towns of Argos, Bremen, Bourbon, Culver, LaPaz and Plymouth and Marshall County;
- Mt. Comfort Road Corridor – comprised of the towns of Cumberland, McCordsville and New Palestine; and
- New Allen Alliance – comprised of the town of Grabill, Leo-Cedarville and Monroeville and the cities of New Haven and Woodburn and Allen County.
The Stellar Communities Program will designate two regions as Stellar Communities Designees on Monday, Dec. 10. Purdue University’s Center for Regional Development will assist the selected regions with long-term sustainability efforts and project implementation.