Following research has been conducted in order to identify elements of place by talking with citizens through a community visioning process. Citizens' responses have been collected through the Small Town Design Initiative Program, available through MSU-Extension. Out of three questions, which have been asked during the public meetings, responses for two of them have been analyzed and results are compared in the end of the Chapter five (5). Collected data has been coded using open coding method and analyzed using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Key findings of the research identified key elements of rural neighborhoods in Michigan based on citizens' responses. Based on the analysis it has been determined that different citizens see different vital elements for their communities. For example, for some representatives of communities it is vital to preserve historical elements and features of the community as oppose to the natural features. Such findings can be applied to the process of designing communities in the future
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