CNU-Comprehensive Planning-Installment 2

I especially like this next part of the session. Gianni is absolutely committed to the idea that active and informed participation by citizens produces better results during the planning process. It requires, however, that they be provided with the tools to do so and that agency planners be willing to engage with citizens for the entire process from idea generation to final deliberation. It also requires citizens to engage for the entire process.

WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS-People, Pixels and Plans
Gianni Longo

There are two challenges to determining what the public wants. How do you provide the tools so that the public can make informed decisions? And, what are the tools?

The People
Longo starts with the premise that the informed participation by the people of a community is essential to develop Comprehensive Plans that are actually implemented. He very much follows in the philosophical footsteps of Jane Jacobs, the author of the Death and Life of the Great American City and who was Robert Moses' nemesis as he imposed his Uber-Planner approach on New York City.

The Pixels:
People must be able to visualize the reality they want. Ideas must be translated into visual representations that accurately reflect what would be the new reality if people are to understand implications and consequences.

In any project there are many pieces and perceptions that must be integrated. In the past, designers and planners used physical models and snaked cameras through them to understand the feel and sense of scale of a project. These folks understood that neither aerial views of physical models or one-dimensional representations give a true read on the feel of the actual built product.

Now, we can use computers so people can see context and the effects of change. The tools are seductive, but they do help us understand and illustrate proposals, and then make decisions. But, they still require a process framework that helps us understand what public wants based on informed decisions that can be put into a plan.

There should be three stages to the process

• Generative-people give voice to their ideas, hopes, and values
• Analytical -what does that look like and does it work
• Deliberative - The public explicitly says yes this is the vision and we give you permission to develop the plan. Plans that do not have the community's permission, don't get implemented.

Tools

• Generating ideas-Can use google applications to put ideas on real maps. The Environmental Simulation Center is advancing the use of google in public processes. These tools allow the dialogue to link ideas and suggestions with places to produce the desired outcome-understanding what the public values and wants. This understanding is the foundation of any successful process.
• Analytical-Visualization comes into play in this stage. How do the ideas translate? You can use simulation to add buildings, change streets, anticipate the effects of time Understanding the consequences of ideas can now occur in relationship to actual physical appearance of community.
• Deliberative-The simplest tool is key pad technology. In Columbus, OH 1700 people thought about 14 different elements for their plan.Don't get to the deliberative stage without doing the generative and analytical stages. This is a sequence. Attendees at the keypad stage have to have participated all along. The result in Columbus was a $1.6 billion bond initiative that passed with 65% of the vote. It was to implement the vision of their Comprehensive Plan.

Another significant outcome of the use of technology is that it shortens the feedback loop-minutes pass, not months. The result is continuity.

The web should never be used as the sole way to get input. It lacks a paper trail of participation. The process should not be one in which people are anonymous and come in and out of it at will, because people must be continuously be involved.

Technology does not substitute for establishing legitimacy. You do that by truly listening.

Three Outcomes that Reflect Democratic Principles

• Values-Represents what people want
• Vision-Articulation and integration of vision with technical analysis
• Endorsement-Deliberation

Real public participation empowers the planning process

The integration of public involvement and technology

• Puts information at public's fingertips
• Anticipates the future
• Enables informed decisions
• Gives permission to act.