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Home Page   Local News   Local Sports   Community Calendar   Opinion   Editorials   Columns   Letters to the Editor   Archives   News Archives   Sports Archives	9-06-2007 College group studies village By JIM AUSTIN Editor Six urban design students and their professor from the University of Notre Dame are here through Tuesday to study the village. The students will be looking at the growth pressures the community is facing in the areas of housing, commerce, tourism, parking, sewer and water, community character and aesthetics. Professor Philip Bess said that Cooperstown has been cited as an example of good American town design for many years. Now, Cooperstown and many other traditional American towns find themselves coming under increasing pressures to grow in the only manner that law and contemporary culture allow - the segregated land use pattern of development, or urban sprawl that flourished following World War II. This fall, Notre Dame's graduate urban design studio will focus on Cooperstown and the pressures it faces. Although the students are working primarily in the village, Bess believes some of the issues they examine may have more far-reaching, countywide implications. Tuesday evening, Bess conducted the first public meeting about the project where he explained the concept of New Urbanism and process the group will use. Bess told a group of about three dozen people that he and the students hoped to look at Cooperstown through "fresh eyes." He invited people to participate in a public "in-process" presentation the students will make Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday afternoons from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the village meeting room. Bess said he wanted people to bring their concerns to the students and they will address them. A candid give-and-take needs to take place, he said. The process will culminate in a final charrette presentation Tuesday evening from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., also in the village meeting room. Bess and the six graduate students arrived in Cooperstown late Monday for an eight-day stay. When students return to campus, they will continue to develop and refine their design proposal. In December, the students will present their final proposal. The presentation will include drawings and the proposed legal mechanisms that will promote the shared community vision.
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