Officials with the Iowa DOT report Audubon, Bedford and Treynor are three of 10 Iowa communities that have been selected to participate in the Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning program in 2018. The award-winning program integrates technical landscape planning and design techniques with sustainable community action to assist community leaders and volunteers in making sound and meaningful decisions about the local landscape. The other 2019 visioning communities includeCoggon, Durant, Hinton, Royal, Sumner, Van Meter and Walcott.

Since 1996, 255 Iowa communities have benefited from the Community Visioning program. To qualify for the program, a community must have a population of fewer than 10,000 residents, existing transportation-related issues and a committee of volunteers willing to dedicate their time and talents to the visioning process.

The Community Visioning program is sponsored by the Iowa Department of Transportation in partnership with Iowa State University Landscape Architecture Extension and Trees Forever, an Iowa-based nonprofit focused on planting trees and native plants. In addition, professional landscape architects offer expertise in creating conceptual design plans for the communities.