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Small Town Area Revitalization (STAR)Small Town Area Revitalization (STAR)

Since 2002, Central Park NC’s Small Town Area Revitalization (STAR) program has worked with small towns throughout the region to help them adopt long-term, sustainable answers to ongoing civic challenges. Most of these towns have fewer than 1,000 residents, many have volunteer mayors and other civic officials, and almost all lack a town government (including a town manager) to take a long-range, strategic approach to civic change. The STAR program has two coordinators who meet with volunteers from the town and assist them with formulating, and implementing, a strategic plan. In the short term this program hopes to provide residents with the tools to effect positive change in their community but the long-term goal is to get residents thinking regionally in ways that link their towns to others throughout the area.

The five building blocks of the STAR process are:

1.    Organization – Cultivating a cohesive, committed community organization to plan and implement a set of strategies that will revitalize the town.
2.    Economic Development – Developing new business sectors that include - but are not limited to - creative enterprises, small-scale and value-added agricultural activities, cultural tourism businesses such as indigenous restaurants, coffee shops, bed and breakfast establishments, and outdoor recreation-based businesses such as outfitters, cycling shops, equestrian supplies and more.
3.    Historic Preservation – Preserving the town’s historic architecture and encouraging new design that is in keeping with the culture and heritage of the place.
4.    Recreation – Creating attractive and appealing public spaces that encourage community interaction, walking and biking paths that connect neighborhoods to each other, to schools, churches and downtown and enhancing other healthy outdoor activities. Taking advantage of natural resources to promote healthy human-powered recreation.
5.    Promotion & Marketing – Promoting the development of the town’s unique identity to cultivate community pride and developing communication systems that ensure townspeople are informed. Marketing local assets and attractions to visitors and embracing the strategy to develop North Carolina’s Central Park as a tourism destination.

Each community is unique but generally the STAR program takes 12 to 18 months and occurs in four phases:

•    Phase I: Prepare – Present program to Town Council, identify, recruit and prepare Steering Committee
•    Phase II: Study – Resource team visits, then develops recommendations for revitalization based on
town’s unique assets and challenges.
•    Phase III: Plan – Review and refine recommendations with Steering Committee. Form and train five focus area teams.
•    Phase IV: Implement – Launch small-scale projects to catalyze community involvement and demonstrate potential. Begin sourcing and securing funds for full implementation of plan.

Central Park has completed the work with the STAR program. If you have any questions about our work or would like to collaborate with us in the future, please contact info@centralparknc.org.