Why Become a Green Tier Legacy Community?
The future of our landscape can be predicted by the health of our communities today. If we value the communities where we live and invest in their future, we will have a place that can proudly be left for future generations.
When our communities deteriorate we look for new places on the landscape to develop. This practice typically involves farmland lost to subdivisions, new roads to carry more cars and the decay of neighborhoods that are left behind. If we care about Wisconsin, we must tend to our neighborhoods.
Green Tier Legacy Community Process:
- Develop a plan that enables a continuous improvement process in all proposed action areas.
- Engage and train employees to facilitate Charter goals and objectives.
The “Seven-Step” Process:
- Define charter and planning area boundary
- Collect, enter and evaluate environmentally related (benchmark) data
- Evaluate current and desired trends based on city reports and commissions
- Evaluate current comprehensive plan in light of current and desired trend lines
- Develop and implement policies and programs to enable desired trends
- Evaluate effectiveness and results of programs and policies
- Make improvements to goals and programs
Six Benefits of participating in Legacy Communities:
- Direct access to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) expertise and technical assistance
- Potential to receive discretionary funding and preference in awarding state grants
- Creates a forum to be recognized for achievements in sustainable development
- Advances position amongst competitive communities
- Provides collaboration and information networking with experienced municipalities
- Allows for “enlightened self interest“