The Alexander County Historic Preservation Commission invites you to bring your lunch and learn more about preserving historic communities. “Lunch & Learn” events are scheduled each Tuesday at 12:00 noon during the month of September. The meetings will be held in the Alexander County Services Center conference room, located at 151 West Main Avenue in Taylorsville.
Programs, lasting approximately one hour, will be presented by professionals from North Carolina and Washington, D.C.
On Tuesday, September 5, Ed McMahon, Senior Resident Fellow with the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C., will present “Secrets of Successful Communities.” Every community has its own strengths and weaknesses, but successful communities often share some common characteristics. The workshop will give you the tools and techniques that successful communities use to thrive and grow.
On Tuesday, September 12, Randall Hemann, City Manager of Mooresville, will discuss “Planning for Investment.” It is important to factor in your community’s fiscal realities when thinking about your economic development future. Municipal leaders are often having to consider “Investment X” against “Investment Y” or, the other alternative, “No Investment.” Planning for investment will help guide these decisions and enable the best course of action to be determined while considering limited resources.
On Tuesday, September 19, Ed McMahon with the Urban Land Institute will examine strategies for “Building Healthy Places.” Many factors affect human health, including genetics, personal behavior, and medical care, but this workshop will explore the relationship between health and the built environment. It will look at the many ways that the design of our buildings and communities affects our physical health and mental well-being. In many places, physical activity, once part of our everyday lives, has been designed out of our daily routines. This webinar will examine what communities can do to create healthier buildings and neighborhoods. It will set out fundamental principles for building healthy places and showcase numerous examples of what both builders and local communities are doing to make healthy choices easy and more profitable.
On Tuesday, September 26, David Maurer, President of Maurer Architecture, will provide a “how-to” tutorial for “Upper Level Residential Development in Downtown.” For too many years, the upper stories in downtown buildings have been vacant or used for storage. Fortunately, there is a new demand and a resurgence in the desire to live downtown, which is having a positive economic impact. This “how-to” program on renovating downtown historic buildings for residential use will share experiences and guidance with design issues, navigating the building code, and the economics, all balanced with meeting the requirements for historic tax credits.
The “Lunch & Learn” programs are brought to you by the Alexander County Historic Preservation Commission. Programs have been produced and archived by Leverage NC, which is a partnership between the N.C. League of Municipalities (NCLM), the N.C. Department of Commerce and its Main Street and Rural Planning Center, the N.C. Downtown Development Association, and the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
The public is invited to bring a lunch and learn from these free presentations. For more information, please contact Connie Kincaid at ckincaid@alexandercountync.gov or 828-352-7757. Learn more about the Alexander County Historic Preservation Commission at https://alexandercountync.gov/hpc.