Stella, Missouri and SMARTe

October 2008 National Building Museum Online

From 2005 to 2006, the town of Stella, Missouri was a beta test site for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Sustainable Management Approaches and Revitalization Tools-electronic, known as SMARTe, web-based planning tool used to help develop a sustainably-focused master plan for the community. Green Community Assistant Curator Reed Haslach interviewed Bob Hart, a member of Stella’s town council, and Verle Hansen, community planner and architect in EPA’s Office of Research and Development, about the experience and Stella’s goals for the future.

NBM Online: In the face of impending growth and development, the town of Stella, Missouri decided to plan for its future. But with a town population of just 187 people, why was growth a concern?

Bob Hart: The surrounding area is experiencing a 5 to 7 percent annual growth rate. Wal-Mart brought their business, a Super Center Store and their data center, to Jane, Missouri, which is located at the border of Missouri and Arkansas—about 15 miles from Stella. These businesses have brought people to our area because of lower property values and more land availability.

Due to [housing shortages], Stella needs to have control over where growth will occur. Concerns encompass encouraging growth while preserving Stella’s natural environment and cultural resources. We want to preserve our waterways, wildlife, clean air quality, maintain public access to natural resources, and develop parks and recreational facilities that appeal to young people and encourage them to live here. We want to plan our town so that people do not have to drive so far to go grocery shopping or to the doctor.

NBM Online: What is SMARTe? Please describe its main goals.

Verle Hansen: SMARTe has been a public web site since 2003. The main goal of the web site (which was cooperatively developed by EPA, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council) is to provide information, resources, tools, and decision support to help communities overcome revitalization obstacles and enable them to evaluate, assess, and redevelop potentially contaminated sites. SMARTe contains information and tools to assist communities in all aspects of revitalization including finding sources of money, visioning, risk assessment and risk management, and community involvement. SMARTe also allows stakeholders to come together in a web-based environment to evaluate different reuse options for a specific site. In the future, [SMARTe will] include ecological costs and benefits. SMARTe currently receives about 30,000 hits per month from more than 60 different countries and feedback buttons all over the web site allow all users to provide suggestions for improvement.

NBM Online: How did Stella become involved as a beta test site for the EPA’s SMARTe web site tool?

Hart: In searching for information to help clean up a contaminated abandoned hospital site, Stella turned to the Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) communities program at Kansas State University (KSU). The KSU TAB coordinator, Sabine Martin, is a member of the SMARTe development team, and suggested that Stella look into becoming a beta test site for [the program].

Hansen: The SMARTe beta testing period began in 2005 with Stella and in 2006 with Rittman, Ohio. These beta test sites allow us to have more direct contact with users on a regular basis so we can interact with them regarding their improvement ideas.

Because our laboratory’s preliminary strategy and information leading to sustainable land use was theoretical and untried, citizens of Stella were asked if they would allow EPA to create a master plan for the entire town of Stella that would meet local objectives and values so as to also keep natural, social, and economic systems resilient and intact. Future plans for SMARTe include an expansion to more regional revitalization—to make land-use decisions that achieve sustainable natural, social, and economic systems. Results of this “experiment” with Stella and Rittman will inform the SMARTe expansion.

NBM Online: We understand that a few Stellans were not initially on board with taking part in the SMARTe planning process but by the end 100 percent of the community voted to accept Stella’s new master plan. How were people convinced?

Hart: Yes, at first some people misunderstood the process, thinking there was profiteering motivation or that their land was going to be taken away from them or they would lose control of their land. Once they understood that this was not the case and that the plan would be derived from their ideas and would be flexible to account for…future [changes], they became part of the team.

Town meetings were set up by outside individuals to study the past, present, and future and how we wanted to revitalize our village. [Everyone] felt they had something to contribute to the final plan. The result is a plan that incorporates input from all age groups and includes ideas that are appealing to everyone in our community.

NBM Online: Timothy Beatley and Kristy Manning in their book Ecology of Place asked how development can create “livable, inspiring, enduring, and equitable places… where the quality of life and the long-term quality of human existence will be enhanced rather than depleted?” How did you answer this question during the development of Stella’s master plan?

Hansen: Foremost consideration was always given to the needs, wants, and values of Stella’s citizens. Every effort was made to listen to citizens and to create a plan that would provide for local needs and expectations. While listening to citizens, it became clear that the quote by Beatley and Manning was a reflection of Stella’s cumulative voice. It also became clear that if the master plan did not meet this challenge, it would be fruitless. It was essential to create a place where people truly wanted to be. The means to achieve this challenge was to address the fundamental systems on which any community must be founded, i.e., an economic system that provides the means to make a living; the social systems that provide local support and meaning to life; and natural systems that provide livelihood, opportunity, healthy life, beauty, and inspiration. Every planning decision is first an exploration into the best ways to meet local needs, wants, and values that would also produce the most robust and sustainable natural, social, and economic systems.

NBM Online: The outcome of Stella’s master plan calls for a densely developed, mixed-use town center surrounded by a green growth boundary of hiking and bike trails, trees, and even a Frisbee® golf course. The intention is that development will be contained and people will not need to rely upon their cars as much to get around. What do you think greater walkability will bring to the community? What other benefits of the master plan does Stella look forward to incorporating?

Hart: [Stella] wants to create and maintain a small town atmosphere and allow more social interaction with others as in the past. We want to cohabitate with the agricultural community that surrounds us. We would like to incorporate a farmers’ market that would give the local growers a place to market locally rather than shipping away. We would like to adopt a recycling program that help[s] our community…generate [less] trash and develop a composting program/facility with the compost being returned to the local gardens. We hope to be able to introduce wind energy into the area [to] help offset our energy consumption. We would also like to add marketable housing and many more ideas, too numerous to list.

NBM Online: What was learned from Stella’s participation as a beta test site for SMARTe and how do you think SMARTe benefited from working with the community?

Hansen: Stella continues to use the SMARTe web site to help them implement the EPA-developed master plan. Their feedback regarding the use of the SMARTe web site has been invaluable to improving the site for other users. The EPA-developed master plan gave Stella’s citizens a physical representation of their vision and opportunities to become involved in its future. It gave our laboratory the opportunity to apply a strategy and theory that we hoped would enable land-use decisions to be made now that would meet human objectives while assuring that the natural, social, and economic systems are able to sustain the community. Although this strategy and theory cannot be tested until Stella’s development is well underway, this process provided the opportunity to consider natural, social, and economic systems in the planning process. It generated confidence that conditions of intact systems can be used as planning criteria to meet human needs, protect the environment, and establish a harmonious human-environment relationship which can be used to make land-use decisions. These conditions and this strategy will become part of SMARTe as it is expanded.

NBM Online: What is next for SMARTe?

Hansen: SMARTe is currently being translated into German where additional tools will be developed for DE.SMARTe. These tools, once completed, will be translated back to English and incorporated into SMARTe as funding allows. One of the tools is a “sustainability calculator,” which will allow users to evaluate different options from a sustainability standpoint. Again, in the distant future, we hope to expand SMARTe to focus on sustainable land use decisions—beyond site-specific ones.

NBM Online: What is next for Stella? What has already been accomplished and what kinds of future challenges might there be along the way towards fulfilling its master plan?

Hart: We foresee the current climate of the economy and energy prices to be challenges as we move forward. But since we adopted the plan 16 months ago, we have made some significant strides.

A piece of land that had been originally designated as "park" was confirmed legally as parkland and negotiations took place with a neighboring landowner to expand the park area. We stabilized the adjacent stream bank, cleared the land and installed recreational equipment, and dedicated our new park.

We’ve also taken steps to bring services back to the community, reopening the only gas station and convenience store in the Village, and the Le-Ru Telephone Company has expanded with emergency facilities. The Village applied for a FEMA Grant to fund an emergency shelter, which will be built soon, and it has begun negotiations with the U.S. Postal Service to build a town post office.

We are also working to beautify the community in a variety of ways and to develop our cultural resources. Community members have planted gardens at the town entrances and more trees around the community. Plans for new public art murals have been approved and Stella has been added to a twice-yearly driving Tour of Murals of Newton County and Southwest Missouri. Stella is in the process of restoring its historic Lentz-Carter Building, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. We have built a Veterans’ Memorial, which will be dedicated at our big “Stellabration” on November 1st.

Learn more about the SMARTe program.
Learn more about the exhibition Green Community which features Stella, Missouri.

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