Participatory Planning

I'm very interested in this also - what information needs to be available before inviting public participation, and how widespread can this participation be and be practicable?

Carol Berry

Sustainable Transportation Coordinator
Parking & Transportation Services
516 high Street, Mail Stop 9131
Western Washington University
Bellingham, WA 98225
360-650-7960 / 360-650-2945
[email protected]

Joe,

This article may be of some help to you. Savelson, A., Van Wynsberghe, R., Frankish, J. & Folz, H. (2005). Application of a Health Promotion Model to Community-Based Sustainability Planning. Local Environment, 10(6) 629-647.

Regards,
Jan

Jan Aceti
Aceti Associates
19 Allen St. #2
Arlington, MA 02474-6809
Ph: 781-646-4593
Fax: 914-931-2038
[email protected]
www.acetiassociates.com

Joe,

I work in the smart growth and transportation planning field. There are 30 twenty to thirty-year regional visioning exercises occurring in the U.S. right now. Most face a 50% population growth and a similar automobile mileage increase. Regional visioning exercises are very enlightened processes and are touted as "participatory planning processes." But, that's not really true. Regional land use and transportation planning is a very complex thing. The regional political power base hires a consulting lead firm with a particular outcome in mind. That consulting firm holds open-to-public meetings. The public makes suggestions, but the outcome always comes out as the regional political power base wants. This is planning by a few, manipulating the many. So, yes, the process does change the minds of many common citizens. The process serves to educate people about the complexities of accommodating large increases in population. But, it's really "manipulatory planning," not "participatory planning." It's a process to overcome NIMBYism. It is faux-democracy. But, a manipulatory process striving for sustainability and reduced climate change is very important. Thus, a sustainability-centered manipulative process is a good thing (an ugly means to a good ends). The complexities of regional planning are such that the general public has little insight (and little time to spend hours traversing the steep learning curve.) It would be a very good thing if we had an educational system that taught this stuff, but that is far off. An obscure author, Ed Risse, claims that we won't be able to achieve significant sustainability without a broad popular understanding of land use and transportation. The media? They get it wrong a good portion of the time as well - they don't help educate the populous, they serve to confuse. But, that's regional planning like the Puget Sound Regional Council would conduct. You also have the parallel efforts of the Cascadia Center think tank to contend with in your neck of the woods. But more-local-to Port Angeles participatory land use planning is a different animal.

- Steve Raney,
Cities21, Palo Alto

You might want to do a search on the literature for "particpatory rural appraisal" -- there is a good bit of literature out there in the international development sphere documenting the success of this angle of participatory planning.

Susan Marynowski, M.S.
Hawthorne, Florida ---
[email protected]

Jo-anne Waters here,

Urban Ecology Australia have one of the best participatory planning programs I have ever been part of... http://www.urbanecology.org.au/ http://www.urbanecology.org.au/ecocity2/cerrogordo.html

Hello, the City of Calgary embarked on a major participatory planning exercise called: Imagine Calgary. An advertising campaign invited Calgarians to add their voice to the vision by answering five questions about what they value about the city. 18,000 Calgarians responded. The result is a strategy that achieves widespread community ownership of, and action toward, the imagine CALGARY vision and strategies. See the link for more information www.imaginecalgary.ca

Kind regards
Karen

Karen Hughes-
Field Project Analyst
Environmental Management
Southern Region, Alberta Environment
2938-11 Street NE Calgary AB T2E 7L7
Ph: (403) 355-4458
Fx: (403) 297-6069
[email protected]
 

A series of Governing articles, researched and written with the financial support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, examines performance measurement and management with a special emphasis on citizen involvement: http://www.governing.com/manage.htm Governing is a monthly U.S. magazine whose primary audience is state and local government officials: the governors, mayors, legislators, council members, program directors, agency heads, policy advisors and other officials spanning the entire range of responsibility for state and local government. They are the men and women who set policy for and manage the day-to-day operations of cities, counties and states, as well as such governmental bodies as school boards and special districts. The web page also includes resources. Might be worth looking into.

Laureen Gibson Gilroy, CFM

Recycling Coordinator
Field Customer Services
City of Tulsa Public Works
470 West 23rd Street
Tulsa, OK 74107
Tel: (918) 596-2859
Fax: (918) 596-1869

Carol, and others Have a look on the website of the International Association for Public Participation. You will find stuff related to these and many other questions.

Cheers
Graeme --

Real Options International Education,
Training, Facilitation, Communication
PO Box 221 Huskisson NSW 2540 Australia
www.realoptions.com.au
Phone: 61 + (0)2 4441 8885
Meg Bishop: 0418 676879
Graeme Gibson: 0408 676550

Hi Joe,

The Department for Planning and Infrastructure in Perth, Western Australia, undertook a "Dialogue with the City" in September 2003. Perth is a city of about 1.4 million people and is expected to grow by about 750,000 in the next 25 years. A quick summary of what the Dialogue was set out to do can be read at: http://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/media/media01-05.nsf/
d3ea7ba6c70aeaae48256a7300318397/6894deb188478bd948256d410017130f?OpenDocument More detailed information about the Dialogue can be found at: http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/dialogue/1204.asp

Hope that helps,
Cheers,
Jereme

Jereme McKaskill
Cycling Unit Dept for Planning and Infrastructure
T: 08 9216 8459
www.dpi.wa.gov.au/cycling

Thanks everyone for all the great information and initiatives, as I too have been looking for further information. Graeme mentioned the International Association for Public Participation as a point for information, and I have also been looking into them. However, besides finding them on the Internet I have no reference as to whether they are credible or not. Does anyone have reference to IAP2 or such organizations for further education on public participation?

Thanks,
Tiffany Skomro

Public Consultation & Research Officer
Water & Waste Department - City of Winnipeg
109-1199 Pacific Ave Winnipeg, MB R3E 3S8
Tel: 204.986.4838
Cell: 204.770.6583
Fax: 204.986.3745

Tiffany requested more information regarding the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). IAP2 offers an internationally recognised Certificate in Public Participation (a five day 3 module program). The 3 modules cover Planning, Techniques and Communication for effective public participation. The course is offered internationally by licensed trainers (currently in US and Canada, South America, South Africa, Australasia, Asia) and has been translated into French and Spanish to date. I would be able to provide you contacts with individuals and organizations both in Nth America and Australia/New Zealand who could comment on the credibility of the IAP2 approach and training from their perspective if that would assist. IAP2 aims to support and improve the practice of engaging the public in decisions that affect them, to get better outcomes and underpins it's activities with a set of core values and a code of ethics. It also sponsors a range of international research activities that explores and links the practice with current thinking on democracy, deliberative practices, capability building, etc IAP2's key activities are via the training, a network of practitioners for the profession, publications, and through advocacy and strategic partnerships. Local IAP2 Chapters operate in many areas- contact the IAP2 office for details. Further information on the organization and training schedules is available on the website - http://www.iap2.org
Please feel free to contact me if you would like more information.

Regards
John

John Dengate
Board Member IAP2 International Partnership Co-ordinator,
IAP2 Australasia Director & Senior Consultant Twyford Consulting
Ph- 02 4226 4040,
Fax 02 4226 4042
M- 0419 580 794
E- [email protected]
W- www.twyford.com.au
PO Box 6004, Wollongong, NSW, 2500