SALISBURY – Advocates for the scenic environment from around the country will gather at the Rowan Museum on Oct. 7 to learn from experts about best practices in issues including transportation design, community planning, historic preservation and sign control.

The symposium, open to the public, is being presented jointly by Scenic America, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing the visual environment, and its Scenic North Carolina affiliate.

The symposium is part of a three-day conference held annually in different affiliate locations around the country.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Protecting Scenic Beauty and Community Character,” inspired by key issues in Scenic America’s recently released white paper “Taking the Long View: A Proposal for Realizing America the Beautiful.”

“We are excited to bring affiliates from around the country to a historic city like Salisbury,” said Ronald Lee Fleming, chairman of Scenic America. “The city has many finely preserved historic buildings and is doing a superb job of promoting its unique community character as a driver of downtown economic development. We will look at and learn from those successes, as well as some challenges, in Salisbury and other North Carolina communities.”

The symposium agenda features a variety of speakers and topics including: placemaking as a key component of economic development, the importance of gateway roads to a community and a session on sign control in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Reed v. Town of Gilbert.

The symposium should benefit professionals involved in tourism, urban planning, economic development, landscape architecture and land use law. The symposium has been approved for 3.5 AICP Certification Maintenance credits, including 1.5 legal credits, by APA-NC Chapter, Section 2.

The symposium registration fee of $75 includes breakfast and a buffet luncheon.

More details, including a draft agenda, are available on the registration site: www.scenic.org/salisbury.