THE EVOLUTION OF COMMUNITY INPUT

TOOLKITS, TECHNIQUES, HIGH-TECH AND NON-TRADITIONAL/DIVERSE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT HELPS TO MAKE PLANNING ABOUT PEOPLE

“Whether the tools are VR, AI or going to places where real people hang out to get real input — the more we front load [planning] with people’s participation, the better off we will be,” said Jason Jordan, director of Policy & Government Affairs at the American Planning Association (APA).

“We need to go to the people, find out what is the problem to be solved, then create the project to address it.”

Planning, even by very well-intentioned professionals, tends to design the solution then sell it to those impacted by it.

“We have to be much more intentional. For instance, we need to do a better job of engaging the renter community vs. homeowners,” Jordan said.

“I saw a case study from Arlington County, Va. They helped create missing middle housing by context setting and storytelling that led to land-use and zoning reforms.

They shared data showing the need, but they engaged people from the ground up — instead of designing a project and asking, ‘do you like this [rendering] or not?’”