Community Based Planning

PROCESS

Facilitating education, information exchange and the ability for business and residential interests to influence public processes that directly impact their community. 21st Century additions to the traditional 'town hall meeting,' providing multiple ways for citizens to educate themselves and weigh in on the community development process and participate in civic work on personal timeframes from any location.

  • Collaborative design and participation:  engagement of community members, design teams and investors to overcome issues and enhance projects opportunities.Pro-Active Environmental Agenda: Environmental innovation for habitat creation, adaptive reuse of existing assets.
  • Analyses beyond the building line or site limit: assessment of physical, ecological and social history helps make responsible decisions physically and programmatically.
  • Implementation Strategies:  Effective construction staging minimizes impacts of reconstruction for public space, schools, hospitals, stations or high volume destinations.
  • Design for climate change and unexpected events: preparation, response and recovery: bring emergency preparedness to communities prone to crisis: simultaneously enhance the value of infrastructure and public space to prepare evacuate and repair a geography prone to crisis.

PRODUCTS/OUTCOMES
"Have Sharpie Will Travel"

Prepare, coordinate and facilitate charettes, on-line and public forums bringing the right people to the table. Discover what opposing interests have in common and exploit these to allow conflicts to recede and opportunities to reveal themselves.

  • Engage the variety of constituents necessary to execute public and private work within and beyond the boundaries of specific sites or programs.
  • Develop a common ground to help expedite a project, minimize conflicts and create transparency.
  • Gain consensus on verbal and physical visions to meet the needs of multiple constituents including environmental and historical factors who otherwise have no voice.

 

COMMUNITY BASED PLANNING ON LINE
"THE MY SPACE FOR YOUR SPACE"

Utilize the social networking and mapping capabilities of the web to educate and connect neighbors on critical issues they face. Collect and disseminate critical data regarding public opinion on projects.

Provide live data to the press and decision makers so they can respond to and incorporate public opinion in the planning and development processes in real time.



FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Realistically, how can all relevant constituents get engaged in the process?
Sometimes they cannot. Engaging stakeholders in the process gives face to face interaction between owners and those affected and with interests in a project. If people do not care to have a say in the matter, not unlike our right to vote, they need not participate. If adequate efforts are made to engage a wide range of perspectives, those with interests and values will choose to contribute. Otherwise, some with interests may not have the ability to attend for personal or geographic reasons this is why on-line community based planning is critical in addition to the traditional ‘town hall meetings’ for casting the widest net for citizens and disciplines to participate in public work.

What can the internet do for planning?
'Town hall meetings' have been the only way for community members to learn about and get involved in projects in their neighborhood. Meetings are often attended by people with personal agendas or who simply have the time and for whom the location is convenient. Utilizing the social networking aspects of the internet for this purpose will transform the public process into one of inclusion of people, gathering information that is most representative of people’s best interests.

What about people who do not have access to the internet?
Access to the internet is not the issue today, computer literacy is. With computers accessible in public libraries, churches, synagouges, mosques, community centers and schools, peoples interest in participating in neighborhood decisions is an excellent catalyst to introduce people to the internet.