Members of the Renaissance Zoning Board, the Rutland Zoning Board and members of Action Plan committees met at 7:00 on Wednesday, January 30, at the Parish Hall of Nordland Lutheran Church. Irv Rustad of Lake Agassiz walked us through our Community Strategic Plan and helped us update language and content. He also explained Rutland’s official zoning ordinance and what the various terminology means. He emphasized that this will be an important tool as we go through the zoning process and strongly encouraged us to become familiar with its content. There was good discussion and Irv was very good at explaining all the unfamiliar language, as well as encouraging us to take a hard look at what we want for our city. Our next step is to take a city map and identify every building and vacant lot on it and the owners of these buildings and lots. We will meet with Irv again on Wednesday, February 20, at 6:00 pm at the Rutland General Store to report on and discuss the progress we’ve made, as well as to see what our next step should be. It is exciting to finally get a good start on our goal of establishing a Renaissance Zone. Without the cooperation of the City Council and the willingness of people to serve on the Renaissance Board, we wouldn’t be able to get anything accomplished. Thank you to all of you who are working so hard with us to make this happen.