The plans for a new South Dakota town

The plans for a new South Dakota town for sign language users designed by new urbanists have been shelved in favor of the redevelopment of an existing town. The Town of Laurent, which received national media attention and was featured on page one of New Urban News in April 2005, has not received the funding to move forward, according to town cofounder, Marvin Miller. The Laurent Company, established by Miller and M.E. Barwacz, is a half-million dollars in debt, including $300,000 to planners Nederveld Associates, Miller wrote on the website, www.laurentsd.com. Instead of building a town from scratch, Miller and Barwacz are looking at redeveloping a town that has lost population in the Upper Midwest or West. They have recently been eyeing another South Dakota town, Spencer, that was damaged by a tornado in 1998. Miller did report some good news — The Laurent Institute, a nonprofit company, received a sponsorship of $150,000/year from Hawk Relay, described as “the first and only deaf and hard of hearing owned and operated relay service provider.”