There is one...Laurent, S.D.
http://www.laurentsd.com/
From the newsroom of the Olathe News, Olathe, Kansas, Thursday, November 20, 2003
A New Town For Deaf
By Leonard Hall
Deaf people have always dreamed that they live in a town where everyone uses sign language to communicate with each other. It would be a wonderful life where everyone at church, school, post office, city hall, and businesses can communicate in sign language.
Currently, there are nursing homes, centers and apartments where a large number of deaf people live together and, along with staff members, everyone can communicate in sign language. Once you leave these premises, however, the world of hearing people provides little communication by sign language.
A group of deaf people in South Dakota is proposing to build a new town for deaf people and signers in a town called Laurent. They want to build a small town patterned on Martha's Vineyard, a small island town in the 1800s where many citizens were deaf and communicated in sign language.
The town would be ideal for deaf senior citizens who would live with other deaf people, instead of being isolated as is common for most senior citizens.
The group hired a New Urbanist town planner group to search for a site and provide a basic plan for the town that would be ideal for deaf people and signers. The group found several ideal sites that are 20 miles west of Sioux Falls on I-90.
There are major advantages to locating a deaf town in Laurent.
· The land is inexpensive and it will be easy to acquire hundreds of acres to set up a town. Utilities are available.
· Laurent would be near I-90 providing easy transportation to nearby Sioux Falls for employment, support services, and businesses. Many new towns have been successfully established near interstates and near large cities.
· In South Dakota, a small town of 4,000 people would be the 15th largest city and that will carry a lot of political support in state legislature.
· South Dakota has no corporate income tax, no personal income tax, no personal property tax, and low interest financing for first time home buyers.
· The key for any new town is that citizens would spend money within the town to support itself. Bank and businesses would be owned by deaf people and signers and the local city government would benefit from money spent in the community.
· The community center and related programs would provide for social, art, and entertainment interaction among people who use sign language.
How can a deaf town be successful in South Dakota? The key is Communication Services for Deaf (CSD) that has its headquarter in Sioux Falls.
CSD has done a wonderful job under the outstanding leadership of Ben Soukup with many projects and businesses across the country. CSD has given back a lot to the deaf community. Hundreds of deaf people moved to Sioux Falls because of CSD.
South Dakota has worked well with CSD, deaf people, and other deaf businesses. Except for the cold winter months, South Dakota may be the ideal state to set up a new town for deaf people and signers.
For more information, links, and free newsletter on Laurent, you can visit the web site at
www.LaurentSD.com and download the 22-page concept paper.
