Essential Smart Growth Fixes for Rural Planning, Zoning, and Development Codes (2012) provides policy options that can help rural communities strengthen their economies while preserving rural character.

Over time, all communities experience changes that affect the industries, technologies, and land use patterns that help form the foundation of their local economies. Economically resilient towns, cities, and regions adapt to changing conditions and even reinvent their economic bases if necessary. Even if the community has lost its original or main economic driver, it has other assets that it can use to spur the local economy. While most economic development strategies involve some effort to recruit major employers, such as manufacturers or large retailers, many successful small towns and cities complement recruitment by emphasizing their existing assets and distinctive resources.

Most discussion related to creativity and culture as new economic drivers on large urban centres. Yet, these ideas have powerful potential in smaller towns and rural areas. Municipalities large and small are turning to municipal cultural planning as a tool for building local economies through creativity, culture, and quality of place. This article examines the experience of one rural area that provides insights and inspiraion for other rural municipalities.

This report highlights six NEH-funded projects designed to support rural American communities through the humanities. The projects featured in this report demonstrate the diversity of the agency’s work and the many strategies for engaging rural communities throughout the country. These projects are just a few examples of how NEH funding fuels innovation, increases communication, and strengthens communities. They also represent the NEH’s commitment to documenting the American experience through the rich stories of rural populations. Some initiatives, like the North Dakota Digital Newspaper Project, use advanced archiving technology and digitization to preserve historical information while others, like A New Harvest, use history to engage Americans in a dialogue about the future of rural America.