It took some time, but the final Successful Gardiner meeting summary is now on the website. You will recall that this past spring, Successful Gardiner organized a public dialogue to identify the community’s vision for the future, concerns, and idea for action to address key challenges.
Our community’s vision for the future included a Gardiner where there is:
A vibrant year-round economy
Well-functioning infrastructure
An authentic community
A strong sense of community
Managed growth to protect community
A great place for youth and families
High quality community services
A healthy ecosystem
On May 7th and May 9th, 116 community members (about 80 people per night!) came together to learn about tools, assess opportunities, and develop recommendations to address the five priority issues identified through interviews and a survey:
Affordable Housing
Protecting Community Character
Sustainable Tourism & Economy
Strengthening Community
Creating A More Youth & Family Friendly Community
The meeting included a break-out group to address each issue area. Within each group, they explored the tools available to address the issue based on (1) the resources Gardiner has alone, (2) through partnerships with Park County, and (3) if Gardiner were an incorporated community. The overall agreement was that Gardiner would benefit most from:
working collaboratively with Park County to develop a community plan to support protection of community character and affordable housing;
building relationships between the NPS, business community, and residents on sustainable tourism management;
accessing technical support from state housing agencies to develop affordable housing projects and exploring tools to manage short term rentals that will respect investments but can support the community's need for workforce housing;
and finally, cooperating with other communities and agencies to leverage resources to support community members well-being.
You can read the entire Successful Communities workshop summary here.
So what comes next? Successful Gardiner will be regrouping this fall following our busy summer season to determine how to move these good ideas forward. And, big shout out to some of our neighbors have continued working on projects that were already in the works. We promise to get an update on progress and next steps as soon as we reconvene.
A HUGE thank you to all of you who participated in this process by filling out postcards, interviews, attending the workshop, and volunteering to make all this happen. It is the people of our community that make this place so wonderful.