2001-03-19 Special Called Regular Meeting and Public Hearing

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.. ., . 1'4 '4"'- 'Trt.~ p,," <\~---v'[''''::~ ' ._ -nA~~~, ~ J.~~.' ' ' -~~=-"-- Th~t.:.chniCal' conlinil:tee:::sh6ttl~~-an-t-ak{}-ffiany-.f~Hns,-aRd-most.:state-and-federaWu . " , ' - persons from the agencies represented on the policy com- agencies have community participation guidelines which mittee, from agencies that will contribute to or use the re- must be followed for projects that they will fund. suits of the planning process, and other technical personnel Community participation is a process of information ex- that can contribute to the program. change to inform the citizens fully and continually about The concerns of the participating agencies should be plans for and activities in the planning process. Comments, identified by the technical committee at the outset of the questions, and criticisms should be solicited from the citi- process so they can be incorporated and addressed in the zens and are considered as part of the planning activity. program design. Involvement of these technical personnel One of the keys to a successful cOIpmunity participation is important to assure the credibility of the technical infor- process is feedback, wherein the planning staff responds to mation produced by the planning process. If staff person- citizens, indicating how all specific community comments, ne! endorse the planning activities, the policy board questions, and criticism were considered. The process must counterparts are more likely to do so. This is not always also include well-organized and publicized community true, however, and the program manager should always be meetings, considerable media participation, and a cop,tinu- alert for situations where there are "hidden agendas." The ous flow of information. ' technical participants can provide useful guidance in such For a large metropolitan area, a hierarchy of committees situations. is a useful way to organize community participation. The It is important to be open to comments and concerns of smallest element of such a hierarchy is the neighborhood committee members and to respond expeditiously to them. group, which considers matters of particular importance to The members must feel that they are full participants in each individual neighborhood. Information prepared in the the planning and decision process. They must be involved planning program should be explained at meetings in from the beginning so they will feel ownership of decisions. neighborhoods throughout the planning area. Several Their involvement in selection of evaluation criteria and in neighborhood groups can then be combined for corridor evaluating alternatives is especially important. All partici- meetings to address issues that relate to the full extent of pants in the planning program must feel that the resulting each transportation corridor. Having several neighbor- plan "belongs to" them. hoods meet together for corridor issues gives support for common concerns but also permits participants to under- stand different positions of other neighborhoods. Commu- nity wide meetings would follow to bring out issues from Everyone in the community is a transportation expert and the various corridors. has an opinion about how to solve the transportation prob- Achieving effective community participation requires lem. They use or see the system perform every day, usually repeated solicitation of citizen involvement in the planning at the times of its worst performance, the peak periods. process. The community participation program should be Those people pay for the solutions, so they must be given initiated following completion of the program design and an opportunity to voice their opinions about what the solu- at least by the start of the technical planning program (in- tions should be. The key word is opportunity-a public in- ventory existing conditions in Figure 4.1). Interaction with formation program about the transportation planning the community can occur at any number of points in the process must reach as many people as reasonably. feasible process but is especially important early, to explain the and must provide opportunities for them to express their program; following the baseline evaluations, to identify opinions. Whether or not the people express their opinions problem areas; after principal options have been tested, to 15 their choice, but they must recogmze that they havetliaC-<fesctffietne-lnitiatTe~ts;-an{t'"afterfine'tUIringLhe-pre---m _____ opportunity. ferred projects, to sample the mood of the community re- CommunilY participation is a process in and of itself garding possible recommendations. and may involve numerous committees. Organizing com- Information pre~nted should also be widely distributed mupity participation, is usually, much more involved than in the community, such as in monthly newsletters, for the organizing the policy and technical committees. Commu- benefit of persons not attending formal meetings. C.ontinu- oity participation can be as important as the technical:, ing participation can occur in "store, front~ offices, also in process because. without the support of the electorate, the neighborhoods, that can be visited by citizens at any time. responsible agencies will probably not be able to implement the recommendations of the planning program. In the con- tinuing planning program, community participation is an ongoing effort to brief the media and key citizens organiza- tions whose. support or interest is necessary for particular projects or activities. The principal goal of the community participation pro- gram is to assure that residents have a part in the planning program, thereby also making the results of the planning process credible in the eyes of the electorate. To do this the . community participation program must demonstrate that the planning process is open, accessible, and responsive to citizens concerns. The community participation process 4.3.3 Community participation f I i f 4.3.4 Program design Major technical efforts must be carefully thought through before they begin in order to assure that they are effective and efficient. The product of such consideration should be a program design document that is preparia by the key ac- tors, using other technical and management personnel as necessary. The lead agency will organize a committee of technical personnel to prepare the' program design. The program. desigll must be tl~orough and dynamic so that it clearly specifies what will be done, by whom, and when, yet is adaptable to changing situations. It is important Urban Transportation Systems 91 ..