The only remaining active Shaker community in the world has teamed up with 10 other conservation and preservation groups to curb sprawl and preserve their heritage.
The Shakers today must contend with a modern problem confronting all farmers in southern Maine: suburban sprawl driving up land values and property taxes.
Sprawl means much of the Shaker land is taxed for its potential to sprout subdivisions, not crops. So the four remaining members of the last active Shaker community in the world are struggling to pay high taxes - more than $27,000 last year - in addition to their expenses for daily living and other costs. Those include maintaining the society's library and museum and the upkeep of 19 historic but fragile buildings in their village - the newest of which was built in 1910.
"We may be simple, but our lives are not," said Brother Arnold Hadd.
Thanks to Mike Lydon
Read the full story: Sprawl stops here
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Iowa taxpayers are paying thousands to clean manure out of their water
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FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello