The Mississippi Main Street Association (MMSA) has been recognized for its planning work for the second consecutive year with two awards presented by the Mississippi Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA Mississippi).
APA Mississippi’s Chapter Awards recognize the best in planning in Mississippi. At its recent annual conference in Starkville, Miss., APA Mississippi presented MMSA with Best Small Area Plan for the Biloxi Downtown Roadmap and Best Public Outreach Project for the Envision-Connect project.
The Best Small Area Project award recognizes an outstanding small area plan that advances the art and science of planning for a community, county, or region. The award is given for an area that is smaller than an entire jurisdiction, without regard to population size. The Biloxi Downtown Roadmap was a strategic plan that was created by MMSA for the Biloxi Main Street program, with grant funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Biloxi Downtown Roadmap provided Biloxi Main Street and the city of Biloxi with a holistic and comprehensive plan for sparking new energy in its downtown commercial district.
APA Mississippi also presented MMSA with the Best Public Outreach Project award for implementing the Envision-Connect project in five Main Street communities. The Best Public Outreach Effort award recognizes a community project, program, or initiative that uses information and education about the value of planning to create greater awareness among citizens generally or to specific segments of the public. The award celebrates how planning improves a community’s quality of life.
With the belief that purposeful outreach leads to intentional implementation, the Envision-Connect project, supported by USDA Rural Development’s Community Facilities Technical Assistance and Training program, produced high-level, prioritized action items for Aberdeen, Booneville, Columbia, New Albany, and Water Valley. The engagement and outreach process was designed by Orion Planning + Design to maximize community participation, build objectivity into the process, and help prioritize the proposed community facilities recommendations.
“The Mississippi Main Street Association is honored to be recognized for its planning work by APA Mississippi,” said Thomas Gregory, MMSA Executive Director. “The Biloxi Downtown Roadmap provided a plan with thematic recommendations to further catalyze the revitalization of the Biloxi Main Street district, and the Envision-Connect project engaged residents and stakeholders in five Main Street communities to create an actionable plan for community revitalization with community facilities as the area of focus.”
