Save the Date: Registration coming soon!

FMM Annual Meeting - With Keynote Speaker Joe Minicozzi

Most of us - business owners, city planners, elected officials, voters, and the like - understand that our communities bring in more tax revenue when we attract new investment and new development. However, we often overlook the scale of the property tax payoff for encouraging dense mixed-use development. And we often overlook the untapped potential of strip developments and single use areas of town.

Many policy decisions seem to create incentives for businesses and property developers to expand just about anywhere, without regard for the types of buildings they are erecting. In this keynote address, Joe Minicozzi will argue that the best return on investment for the public coffers comes when smart and sustainable development occurs downtown and we take actions, public and private, to turn single use development into productive, mixed use areas.

Joe Minicozzi will describe a number of communities across the nation where he has worked. His funny, entertaining presentation will inspire you.  Learn about the incredible opportunities we have to make our communities more productive. You will never view your community the same way again!

Joseph Minicozzi AICP is the principal of Urban3 LLC, a consulting company of the real estate developer Public Interest Projects. He has most recently served as the Executive Director for the Asheville Downtown Association and the new projects director of PIP. Before moving to Asheville, he was the primary administrator of the Form Based Code for downtown West Palm Beach, FL. Joe's cross-training in city planning in the public and private sectors, as well as private sector real estate finance has allowed him to develop specific analytic tools that have garnered national attention in Planetizen, The Wall Street Journal, Planning Magazine, The New Urban News, National Association of Realtors, Atlantic Cities, and the Center for Clean Air Policy's Growing Wealthier report. His work has been featured at the Congress for New Urbanism, the American Planning Association, and three New Partners for Smart Growth conferences as a paradigm shift for thinking about development patterns.

Joe is a founding member of the Asheville Design Center, a non-profit community design center dedicated to creating livable communities across all of Western North Carolina. He received his Bachelor of Architecture from University of Miami and Masters in Architecture and Urban Design from Harvard University.

Registration materials will be available next week for this October 11 meeting at 5:30 p.m. in Rockland, Maine.  SAVE THE DATE!

In addition to the FMM Annual Meeting on Thursday, October 11, Joe will be leading a hands-on workshop in collaboration with Friends of Midcoast Maine and the Maine Downtown Center on Friday,October 12.  The Downtown Institute will be held at the Farnsworth Art Museum and includes a light breakfast.

Learn the nuts and bolts of this  analysis tool that you can conduct in your own community.  Use your own local assessor's data to determine the benefits of downtown development and growth. Registration materials available soon.