The Saucier Town Plan
The 2006 Urban Design Studio
Andrew C. von Maur
Andrews University
01-01-2006
This plan is intended to serve the citizens of Harrison County, Mississippi as a plan for urban growth in the Saucier community. It’s most fundamental purpose is to guide future deliberations and deci..
more »This plan is intended to serve the citizens of Harrison County, Mississippi as a plan for urban growth in the Saucier community. It’s most fundamental purpose is to guide future deliberations and decisions which affect the way people build and live. It is a plan which advocates the building of civil communities, the pursuit of economically and environmentally sustainable development practices, and the building and preservation of places which are useful, beautiful and meaningful.
The Saucier Town Plan was prepared to be a useful document with realistic ambitions, despite the fact that its tone is set by high ideals. It includes many illustrations which may appear to be impossible in the face of current conditions. Its broad scope and detailed proposals may challenge even the boldest visionary. However, after carefully studying this document in its entirety, the reader is encouraged to consider its true significance to the future of the Saucier community. Will Saucier be able to preserve its rural character in the face of coastal sprawl without such a strategy? Will it be able to harness future growth towards something sustainable, something profitable, something beautiful, something good? In keeping with centuries of American traditions and the practices of the New Urbanism, this plan suggests that townmaking in the 21st century can be an enterprise of building communities and places worth loving. Saucier can continue to be such a place.
This project builds on previous planning efforts and is intended to become part of the Harrison County Smart Growth Resource Guide, the development of which began prior to Hurricane Katrina. In particular, this proposal is a direct outcome of the 2006 Community Plan for Saucier by Ohio State University, which identified the community’s desire to build a new town center at Saucier proper.
This plan includes both, visionary illustrations which depict a possible future, as well as tools for the mechanisms of contemporary planning culture. It is essential for the reader to understand the difference: the pictures provide the vision, the diagrams provide tools for understanding, and the code provides a mechanism for implementation. This plan asks citizens, government officials, business owners and developers to work together towards something that can be truly fruitful to all. The first step, however, must be taken by the property owners and residents of Saucier proper. It is for them that this document has been prepared.
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Berrien Springs, MI
Andrews University School of Architecture
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The 2006 Urban Design Studio
Architecture
Urban, Community and Regional Planning
Andrews University