Van Buren, Maine Draws on Resident Input, National Experts to Guide Revitalization
Van Buren’s Town Manager Luke Dyer recently joined GrowSmart Maine for a webinar entitled, Smart Growth for Small Communities. He shared how economic decline put the municipality in a unique position--owning over 50% of downtown buildings in 2022.
Luke is leading community revitalization efforts with resident engagement at the forefront, while also drawing in national expertise on community development and design.
“The goal of our community is to revitalize through what our people want and not what the government and the town manager wants to see happen,” shared Luke.
Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD)
In 2023, Van Buren applied to be part of the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD), a program of the National Endowment for the Arts that assists rural communities in navigating design challenges. Other Maine communities who have received assistance from the CIRD program include Sidney, Skowhegan, and Ellsworth. As Luke shared in the webinar, the questions Van Buren looked to address with support from CIRD were:
- How do we recreate our downtown being conscious of our rich Acadian and French Canadian culture?
- How do we respect our community's incredible history?
- How do we create resilience through climate friendly projects?
- How do we incorporate the Arts and Implement creative placemaking into our rebirth?
Through the CIRD process, the town identified several green spaces in town ripe for reinvention such as the newly proposed 1.7 mile Acadian Historic Pathway, which will include art pieces, bricks from historic buildings, and other historic markers. Read more about this project via the Bangor Daily News. With funding from the State of Maine Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future’s Community Resilience Partnership Community Action Grant, they are also working on a new park which will contain the Van Buren Community Garden Project. The project includes two greenhouses, ten community garden spaces for food sustainability and a stormwater collection system designed to remediate stormwater runoff.
Community Heart & Soul®
These projects have been a springboard for additional community interest and action from town leaders. To keep up the momentum, Van Buren initiated the Community Heart & Soul process last year with the help of a $10,000 Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant. Luke shared that they chose Community Heart & Soul because it involves residents from the start, ensuring support and adoption of municipal plans. Read more about Van Buren’s early work with Community Heart & Soul in the March 2024 issue of Maine City & Town.
Creative Placemaking and Community Events
The town has begun hosting events to bring people together for creative placemaking—for example, this summer’s Christmas in July event drew more than 1,300 residents and visitors. Last fall’s Enchanted Forest Walk, their Christmas Town Celebration and parade, and Spring Fling sledding event for children were huge successes. Additional events will include biweekly ‘Music on Main’ and a ‘207 Weekend’ scheduled for February 2025 where a new documentary film about Van Buren will be ‘premiered’ at a black-tie public affair.
Luke has big ideas and big goals for Van Buren—next up, a downtown business incubator and community connectivity HUB. But, it is clear he knows that to be successful, residents need to drive change: “As a head of my community, it's my job to lead us into a promising future through citizen-desired initiatives and needs. We have to do what our people want-- it's not what Luke Dyer wants or what our Town Council wants. We’ve got to do what our community wants.”
Stay up to date on all that’s happening in Van Buren by following the town on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VanBurenMaine.