The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1958-03-07

tial part of the community trading
area, and in addition, the reservoir
made it necessary to relocate rail
road car ferry and to protect indus
trial property and low-lying streets
within the city itself. Widespread re-
adjustments were needed.
The citizens of Guntersville felt
that adjustments should be appraised
in the light of a broad plan for the
community's future development.
There were obvious opportunities be-
ing created for Guntersville in the
fields of river transportation and
recreation. 1t was furthermore an
excellent opportunity to demonstrate
the possibilities of local planning.
With technical assistance from the
IVA and the State Planning Com
mission, Guntersville has carried on
an active community development
program designed to maximize the
community benefits from the devel-
opment of their river. A dixie was
built to protect low-lying industrial
and business property. A land-use
survey and zoning plan and ordinance
were prepared to guide the develop
ment of private areas back of the
IVA purchase.
The plan also was used as basis
for local recommendations for use of
IVA land. 1t influenced the changing
of the location of new bulk oil ter
minal from a proposed site on the
peninsula point to an area appropriate
for further industrial development.
Flooding of flat lands, and the steep
character of much of the peninsula,
put buildable land in the town at
premium.
Guntersville appropriated funds for
Typographical map as the basis for
land use planning to gain the greatest
possible benefit from available sites.
Subdivision regulations, based on
major street plan, were adopted. Fin
ally, in collaboration with IVA tech
nicians, the community planned and
developed the water front area as
new economic base for the town, part
ly as a service center for a growing
recreation industry and partly as a
trans-shipment point for products
brought to Guntersville by barge and
distributed by rail and highway
throughout the Southeast. Gunters-
vile has grown and prospered through
careful planning for making the most
of the new resources available to it.
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
PROVIDED
To other communities interested
in planning for community develop
ment IVA has provided technical as
sistance in the form of the gathering
of population, economic; educational,
financial, social, and geographical
data essential for the planning of
coming, streets, land use, traffic,
schools, and recreation facilities.
Even more important is the gath
ering and publicizing of informa-
ton on the opportunities presented
by a community for industrial de-
velopment.
On the basis of such information
it has been possible for industry to
take advantage of such opportunities
as were developed and for the loca-
ton of such industries to be intelli-
gently planned in relation to the flu
ture growth and development of the
community. Such industrial programs
have been widely developed by local
with IVA assistance
throughout North Carolina, Alabama,
and Kentucky. co..
Perhaps the potential of planning
for community development can be
seen most clearly in the remarkable
of small rural villages
working with extremely meager re-
sources, who none-the-less manage
community planning to obtain
the maximum benefit from the physi-
cal development of the area. The or
yanization of community resources for
the establishment of electric dis
;ribution co-operatives, the investment
in community freezers, cold storage
plants, food processing equipment,
water systems, and the
organized stimulation of interest in
the other uses to which electric power
can be put for family and community
are but few of
the many small scale programs car
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