With community character often suffering from the expansion of chain stores and strip malls, the Conservation Fund, an Arlington, Va., nonprofit organization, has offered tips on safeguarding the uniqueness of small towns. Among the group's tips are:

1. Help conduct a visual assessment of what is in your town or city, from billboards to street trees.
   
2. Form an appearance commission to plan the future look and feel of development in your community.
   
3. Promote good design in commercial and historic districts.
   
4. Reduce the impact of automobiles by encouraging public transportation and carpooling.
5. Plant and protect trees in public areas.
   
6. Ensure that there is a strong, state scenic byways program.
   
7. Stop the construction of new billboards and encourage on-premise signs to be attractive.
   
8. Support local businesses instead of national chains and franchises, unless they are community friendly.

(Courtesy of the Downtown Idea Exchange, November 1, 2002 issue)

Downtowns across the country are faced with the same problem:

Once-grand buildings in central business districts, from old department stores to historic skyscrapers, as well as numerous smaller structures, are now sitting vacant. They have become havens for squatters and crime, while the structures become unsafe due to years of neglect. With many older, vacant structures, finding a balance between preservation and what is best for a city isn't always easy to do.

It is important to develop an overall strategy for a downtown before addressing the problem of vacant buildings. After understanding what you want and need in your downtown, experts agree that a downtown should conduct an aggressive review of empty buildings and their potential, in terms of what value they add to downtown and the city as a whole.

When reviewing the status of abandoned buildings, three things need to be considered, according to Ernie Zachary, president of Zachary & Associates, Inc., an economic planning and development consulting company in Detroit, Mi.

1. From a market point a view, what should this building be?
2. From a physical point of view, can this building be rehabilitated?
3. From an economic feasibility point of view, how do you make it work?