Cities are trying to find better ways to engage the public.
Recently the City of Vancouver had to step back from neighbourhood rezoning plans in Marpole, Grandview-Woodland and the Downtown East Side after strong resident protests. Meanwhile, population centres throughout the Lower Mainland also feel the heat as they propose to bring higher density to established neighbourhoods along transit routes
Instant communication and social media make it easy to mobilize opposition to neighbourhood change, and the old ways of consulting the neighbourhoods don't work so well anymore.
Until recently, city planners relied heavily on public consultations and open houses to gather feedback from the community. But attendance can be skimpy, and city planners often find feedback unhelpful, or skewed by vested interests. Community representatives, on the other hand, often feel unheard and ignored when plans are revealed. Neighbourhood organizations say they're eager to be consultedjust make it happen earlier in the planning process.
How can we get involved with planning our communities and make our preferences clear? And how can cities plan change with the needs and values of their citizens in mind? It's a lot easier than it used to be.
Cities are giving citizens new ways to be heard.
Darryl McCarron, Manager of Marketing and Communications for the City of Surrey, suggests that traditional means of community engagement are important, but "the goal is to do them better."
Surrey Council has recently launched a number of new efforts to improve its connection with residents and businesses. For example, who's ever heard of a public meeting with no agenda? The City of Surrey has hosted a number of unconventional town hall meetings where councillors met the public without an agenda, to hear what people really wanted to talk about. Staff were available to answer questions, and ideas and specific issues were recorded for further Council consideration.
Another example is recent public consultations that were streamed live on Google Hangout to allow access to interested stakeholders who couldn't attend in person.
Surrey is also one of many municipalities creating online forums to encourage discussion. Public opinion websites make it easy for people to offer feedback about specific topicson their own time and from anywhere. Responses are gathered and aggregated by gender, age group, etc.; then they're weighted accordingly to reflect the population more accurately.
Surrey launched CitySpeaks earlier this year, building a growing panel of contributors. By building a community platform over time, McCarron says, Surrey can aim for optimal demographic distribution to make sure the city is well represented, as well as creating a two-way conversation stream with the panelists.
In time, CitySpeaks will host online discussions, customer satisfaction feedback, and open-ended comments. There's a lot of useful information in the data they collect, too: McCarron describes the powerful reporting capabilities of the system as "methodical, strategic, scientific and based on true demographics."
Vancouver also just launched Talk Vancouver to develop a community platform like Surrey's, and in only a few short months has already gathered over 1500 panelists. Other organizations including the Cities of Richmond, New Westminster, Surrey, Port Moody, and Vancouver use PlaceSpeak, which allows them to poll participants about a particular topic, according to where they call home. PlaceSpeak also hosts discussions by neighbourhood groups, single-issue groups and developers, so it's a great place to find out what's happening.
Your local residents' association is just a Google search away, tooit's a good first stop.
Cities are realizing that public consultation and participation is a critical piece of planning for the future, and we're going to see greater efforts to welcome our involvement. With all the options out there, how will you become involved in planning your community?
See also:
City aims to improve community consultation, social cohesion, Business In Vancouver
