MOBILE-ALABAMA-Celebrating 6 years of Implementation, Envision Coastal Alabama held their annual meeting on March 25, 2004.  This was followed by an all-day "Smart Growth Conference". 
            "Smart Growth for Mobile: A New Alternative," a plan developed by the city of Mobile's urban development department, took top honors in the outstanding planning program category at the annual conference of the American Planning Association's Alabama chapter.  Hyperlink to Envision Coastal Alabama's web site http://www.mobilechamber.com/envision/index.html

RUTHERFORD COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA-Over 350 people attended the November 20, 2003 annual meeting celebrating the first year of implementation of REALIZE RUTHERFORD  You can access the new web site at http://www.realizerutherford.com./ .  The  annual meeting was described in the following article http://www.thedigitalcourier.com/articles/2003/11/16/news/news02.txt

Reports from the foundations were reported in the Digital Courier:

Quality of Life-http://www.thedigitalcourier.com/articles/2003/12/21/news/news01.txt

Education-http://www.thedigitalcourier.com/articles/2003/12/21/news/news03.txt

Economic Development-http://www.thedigitalcourier.com/articles/2003/12/28/news/news01.txt

Private Sector Leadership-http://www.thedigitalcourier.com/articles/2004/01/18/news/news03.txt

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLORIDA-St. Johns Vision celebrated and reported on their 2nd year of implementation at the Annual Meeting on May 12, 2004.  The keynote speaker was Karen Stern, Chair of the County Commission. http://staugustine.com/stories/051304/new_2322404.shtml

A guest editorial by Jim Sutton, St. Johns Vision Executive Director is at http://staugustine.com/stories/050904/opi_2315123.shtml

SAGINAW COUNTY, MICHIGAN-Vision 2020 celebrated their 3rd year of implementation on May 4, 2004. Michigan Governor, Jennifer Granholm, was the Keynote Speaker. She announced $100,000 in grants for Saginaw in her speech.  She also left the stage and asked the 400-some citizens to give her a business card volunteering to be a "reading-buddy" for 1st through 3rd graders at 10 target elementary schools.  She collected 77 cards.
            Saginaw school district leaders are researching possible solutions to the "freshman flop".  The difficult high school transition, which plagues many districts across the country, is part academic, and social. 

                                                                                    The Saginaw News

POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA- The draft Polk Vision was completed on May 18, 2004 and can be reviewed at http://www.polkvision.com/.  Polk County has a population over 500,000 spread over 2,000 sq. miles of land and 554 natural lakes.  It probably has more waterfront miles than any county in Florida.  The process to achieve the draft included 18 Focus Groups, 5 Community Meetings, and 5 Vision Task Forces.  We developed 14 Scenarios to help frame the key choices to be considered in developing the draft Vision.  These Scenarios are also on the web site. The draft Vision is being presented to hundreds of organizations for input by July 26th.  The final Community Meetings for input will be held in late July.

WICHITA, KANSAS- "Visioneering Wichita-Creating the Future for Our Regional Community" began on May 20, 2004.  The Wichita MSA had a four-county population of 580,000 in 2002.  There will be 18 Focus Groups, 8 Community Meetings, and 4 Vision Task Forces to generate the draft Vision in mid-October 2004.

PAULDING COUNTY, GEORGIA- The Planning for Paulding Strategic Plan was completed and implementation began in April 2004.  The plan can be seen by hyperlinking to http://www.lukevision.com/Paulding/PauldingTitle.htm

HAMPTON ROADS, VIRGINIA-The NASA Langley Research Center's economic impact for fiscal year 2002 was over $2.25 billion in total direct and indirect impact for this world-class facility.

                                                                                    Source: Hampton Economic Link

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA- The US Food and Drug Administration has approved  Biogen, Inc.'s  $173 million plant to manufacture the psoriasis drug- "Amevive".  The 250,000 sq. ft. plant is in the Research Triangle Park.

                                                                                    Triangle Business Journal

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA-The Jacksonville Chamber led the annual city leadership trip to Dallas, Texas October 22-24, 2003.

CURACAO, NETHERLANDS ANTILLES-On September 28-October 2, 22003, the Curacao Port Authority hosted the 92nd Annual AAPA Convention at the World Trade Center.  This is the premier annual event in the port industry with over 900 delegates and their spouses from the United States, Canada, and Latin America.

LUKEVISION- Celebrating 21 years of building Community Vision, we now have links to Visions or Strategic Plans for over 50 communities or regions on our web site, including the  communities above.  Visit at http://www.lukevision.com/communities.htm   Since August 31, 2002 there have been requests for 121,603 pages from the entire web site.

PAST COMMUNITY VISIONING REPORTS, the Community Strategic Planning Process, and client web sites can be reviewed from the menu below.  Luke Planning, Inc. provides facilitation for Community Vision and Community Strategic Planning. Please forward this newsletter to anyone who may have an interest in these topics.

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Henry Luke