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While Boston and Los Angeles have poured ample money and employee time into a pilot program to help cities handle growth, Astoria took up the same program by arming interns with 25-foot tape measures.

The program, called the Human Development Overlay District, creates three-dimensional models of entire neighborhoods: Hollywood, Boston’s Chinatown, and downtown Astoria. Planners and social service agencies can then use the models to help the areas accommodate growth.

Right now, Astoria doesn’t have funding for a community resource center, or employees to run it 鈥� hallmarks of the program in Boston and Los Angeles. The town of 10,000 people couldn’t keep up with those metropolises, said Lucien Swerdloff, a leader in the Astoria program and a computer-aided drafting instructor at Clatsop Community College.

鈥淭hey have huge resources,鈥� Swerdloff said. 鈥淲e have no resources here.鈥�

As a result, Astoria’s participation in the program, along with the grant the city received, was reduced. Full participants received $125,000 for the first year, with more to come; Astoria got a one-time grant of $40,000, which pays for interns to build Astoria’s virtual city.

Intern Joseph McCartin, a Clatsop Community College graduate, spends his free time exploring three-dimensional models: video games such as Counter-Strike and Crysis. The games got him into the college’s drafting program. 鈥淚 wanted to see how (the models) were made,鈥� McCartin said.

And Swerdloff got McCartin working on the downtown Astoria project. 鈥淚 thought, 鈥榃ow! I get paid to do 3-D modeling,’ 鈥� McCartin said.

To create a virtual Astoria, McCartin and another intern measure buildings in the real Astoria to the inch. A third intern gathers information on how the buildings are used and then enters that into the model.

When the model is finished, planners can plop down proposed buildings and see how they fit into the virtual downtown, Swerdloff said. 鈥淚f you have buildings that are fairly accurately represented on either side of a lot, you can superimpose it and say, 鈥楧oes it work? Does the height work? Do the windows line up?’ 鈥� he said.

The program, paid for with a Ford Foundation grant, goes beyond mapping Astoria’s physical features to show how those features are used, said Brett Estes, the city’s community development director. 鈥淎s things change in the community, we can (match) developers working on projects with social service agencies,鈥� he said.

Estes described how that might work: A downtown apartment-dweller on a fixed income might use the model to find out how new high-end developments might affect his or her rent. 鈥淭he person under that scenario could go to a location that serves as a contact to the community and say, 鈥業 have these concerns.’

鈥淎nd they could come up with different scenarios and get a feel for how the neighborhood changes,鈥� Estes said. 鈥淚f they want to stay in the neighborhood, there could be programs for rent assistance or to help prepare for change.鈥�

Grocers could use the model to predict changes in their customer base, Estes said. 鈥淚f they noticed a change in demographics downtown (to) people with a higher income level, the business owner might say 鈥業 really see the opportunity to carry wine and gourmet cheese.’

鈥淭hey could capitalize on that new market and could even partner with an organization to provide marketing assistance,鈥� he said.

It was important to include Astoria, even as only a partial participant, said Paul Patnode, principal research associate with the Environmental Simulation Center, the New York-based organization that runs the program. 鈥淪mall towns frequently face a lot of the same challenges as larger cities,鈥� Patnode said.

鈥淏efore the economy turned south, Astoria was facing a lot of development pressure along the waterfront that threatened to disrupt businesses and residents, and cause gentrification,鈥� he said.

The model being created won’t solve any of those problems, Patnode said. It will, however, give information to help planners and social service agencies work together.

If Astoria is getting the program done on a shoestring, it’s still getting it done, Patnode said. He doesn’t expect Astoria to take a big-city approach.

In fact, he said, the whole point of the program is to help cities keep their identities despite turbulent changes. By looking broadly at the disruption those changes can create in communities, Astoria can grow without losing its character.

鈥淭hey say it’s gritty, not pretty,鈥� Patnode said. 鈥淎nd they want to keep that.鈥�