NEWS AND UPDATES
Archived, May 2006

State Housing Authority and State Planning Office Offer a Workshop on Affordable Housing
Delaware communities, like others around the nation, face a growing affordable housing crisis. In response, the State Housing Authority and the Office of State Planning Coordination will offer a half-day affordable housing workshop -- Planning for Affordable Housing: Tools & Strategies for Success (PDF) on Friday, June 16.

The workshop is intended for local leaders and members of the general public. It will feature an examination of Delaware's housing challenges and an expert panel discussion of "best practices" on Affordable housing in Delaware. The goal is to give Mayors, council members, planners, their staff, and concerned citizens a well-stocked toolbox of land-use techniques and government programs.

The workshop will run from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Friday, June 16, in Room 400A of the Corporate Training Center on the Terry Campus of Delaware Technical and Community College, in Dover. The workshop is free, though seating is limited. Those interested are urged to register before June 8 to reserve a space.
(5/22/06)

Agenda Posted for May PLUS Review Meeting
An agenda (PDF) is now posted for the May 24 meeting of the Preliminary Land Use Service (PLUS). The meeting, set for 8:30 a.m., May 24, in the first floor conference room of the Haslet Armory, on William Penn Street, in Dover, will allow state agency planners to review and comment on proposed land use changes. The PLUS reviews provide feedback to developers before they go before local governments, which have final approval authority. A map of the latest PLUS projects is also available.
(5/9/06)

Early Bird Registration Extended for 2006 Delaware GIS Conference
The Conference Planning Committee for the 2006 Delaware GIS Conference -- Patterns of Change -- has voted to extend the Early Bird Registration deadline by two week, to May 19, 2006. Registration prior to May 19 is $85; after May 19 will be $100.

The Conference, set for June 1, 2006, at Clayton Hall on the University of Delaware Campus in Newark, will feature a keynote address by Allen Carrol, Chief Cartographer and Executive Vice President of National Geographic Maps, and a capstone address by Martin Bruckner, Associate Professor of English at the University of Delaware and author of The Geographic Revolution in Early America: Maps, Literacy and National Identity.

Morning and afternoon breakout sessions will explore:

• The phenomenal growth of public spatial data tools such as Google Maps;
  
• The relationships between Computer-Aided Drawing (CAD) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS);
  
• The ways GIS and spatial data inform public policy development and enhance elementary, middle school, and secondary education;
  
• The role of spatial data in scientific exploration;
  
• State-level GIS coordination throughout the mid-Atlantic region;
  
• The success of municipal GIS efforts; and
  
• Ways to enhance operations throughout an organization using GIS

There will be a wide range of vendors from the geospatial industry, as well as informative posters, projects by Delaware school children, and networking opportunities. There will be technical workshops and a vendor's reception on May 31 and a field activity -- exploring the history of Newark and the use of GPS systems -- on Friday, June 2.
(5/5/06)

State Planning Office Publishes GIS Data Set of Municipal Annexations
The Office of State Planning Coordination has published a GIS data set of annexations by Delaware Municipalities. The new data set shows annexations that have been accepted as complete according to the Plan of Services review process outlined in state law and formally adopted by municipalities since 2004. Metadata for this data set has been published to the Delaware Geospatial Information Clearinghouse.
(5/4/06)

Experimental List of Links Related to Delaware Planning Added to State Planning Web Site
The Office of State Planning Coordination has added a new web page that tracks recently-bookmarked web pages that are related to the work of the Office and to land use planning in Delaware. The new page is an experiment in using using bookmarking and other "social web" tools to enhance public agency web sites. The list of web sites and news articles on the new page is drawn from an RSS Feed of items tagged by Planning Office staff as planning-related using the del.icio.us bookmarking web site.

The new page will always show links to the 25 most recently tagged pages; a link to the full list (on the del.icio.us site) is also included. The page uses a JavaScript code. Users who have disabled JavaScript will be presented with a direct link to the full list of links.
(5/4/06)

Open House Workshops Planned for Walking and Biking Plan for New Castle County
A series of public workshops have been scheduled in May and June to gather public input on ways to create a multi-use, pedestrian and bicycle path network in New Castle County. Open-house workshops have been scheduled for May 23, at WILMAPCO's Offices in Newark; May 31, at the Brandywine Hundred Library, north of Wilmington; and June 8, at Middletown's Town Hall.

WILMAPCO, DelDOT, New Castle County, Delaware State Parks, and Delaware Greenways have teamed up with local governments to develop a Pedestrian and Bicycle Pathways Plan for the County. The plan, which will compliment the DelDOT Bicycle Plan, will help state and local planners coordinate transportation projects and land use changes to improve walking and biking trails in the County.
(5/1/06)