KeepSpace Has Arrived in Westerly!

The Six KeepSpace Principles are:

• A Good Home: Home provides the foundation upon which families can thrive, children can learn and grow, and communities can prosper. A good home is a safe, healthy, inviting place that is affordable to rent or own, especially to those who work close by. Good homes are the focal point of a thriving community.
• A Healthy Environment: Environment is what encompasses a community. Whether a neighborhood, region, country or globe, our environment must be protected and nurtured. By using or reusing resources wisely, we encourage sustainable, healthy lifestyles today and for generations to come.
• Strong Commerce: Commerce is the heartbeat of daily life, providing the essential needs for today and ensuring prosperity for the future. A strong economy incorporates the employment of community residents and the provision of goods and services that people need or desire.
• Sensible Infrastructure: Infrastructure allows people to live and work in a community. It is the large-scale public systems, services, and facilities that people rely on, including power and water, public transportation, communications, roads and schools.
• Positive Community Impact: Community impact is the influence that every home, workplace, infrastructure element, service or activity has on a neighborhood. For a community to function at its best, community members must work cooperatively to maximize productive and positive impact on others and the natural and built environment.
• Integrated Arts, Recreation, Culture, and Religion: Arts, recreation, culture and religion fulfill that part of our lives that falls beyond our basic physical necessities. They provide refreshing opportunities to interact with others in the community. By nourishing the mind, body and spirit, these elements play a vital role in the character and customs of every community.

WESTERLY - A wide-reaching group of community leaders has taken the future of downtown into their hands and will soon reach out for public and developer support.

Called Keepspace Westerly, the one-year, collaborative initiative hopes to draft a plan to turn downtown into a "vibrant urban center" where residences, businesses, arts, religion and recreation coexist.

"This is genuinely going to be a community process," said Mark Gordon, Keepspace Westerly coordinator, of the planning project.

"Ultimately, this is not about coming up with yet another plan. There are a lot of plans," he added. "Ultimately, this is about making a real, concrete, actual difference in downtown Westerly."

A 70-member working group is being formed to start planning that difference. Invitations have been extended to community leaders including business owners, arts and cultural representatives and educators and health and public safety officials