Do you want to reach the most community members to gain support for your planning effort? Do you need a platform for your plan that can easily be updated and illustrate planning concepts? Have you experienced a failed plan because decision makers could not fully understand the purpose of the plan? If you answered yes, then you need tools to facilitate communication during and after plan creation.
The following three strategies are known to be effective, however not in the way you might expect. An interactive map does not have to be complicated and cumbersome. A web site should be more than a page of PDF links. Community involvement can be driven by the web. Plan success depends on community support and objective implementation. Key plan components such as maps, design option illustrations, building inventories, plan goals, and implementation schedules can get your plan the attention it deserves.
Interactive Maps
Over the last 5 years, the online mapping landscape has dramatically changed. Map technology can be as simplistic as Google Maps or as complicated as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Sometimes, the most simplistic tools can be the most effective.
Online GIS is the grandfather of mapping tools for urban planners. Even though it has been around awhile, its price and ease of use have not decreased. Online GIS, which is supposed to increase the public’s access to information, is complicated for the average user. The actual map components load slowly even with the fastest internet connection. Users have to learn how to use it in order to retrieve desired results. It also requires a costly technical expert to administer it.
An alternative to GIS is a virtual globe such as ArcExplorer or Google Earth. Many web users are familiar with Google Earth and have possibly used it to view aerial imagery of a location. It has an extremely easy-to-use navigation system. You might not be aware of all its features but it does allow custom information to be displayed within it.
You can do a lot of the same things in Google Earth that you can do in GIS. Of course, complicated analysis should remain a task of offline GIS. Most of the key functions planners and the public require are not complicated. The display and retrieval of geographic information should be easy to access and update.
An online building inventory showing empty parcels, recent development, locations of economic zones, TIF districts, and historic districts can help planers gain support. A building inventory can be used and accessed by key city departments and function as a marketing tool to recruit home buyers, developers, and businesses to the area.
A building inventory web site that maps out your locations in Google Earth makes it easy for everyone involved in the planning process to access information.
Zoning maps can be cumbersome to read and understand. If you want to distribute zoning maps in PDF format, you must break them into quadrants that will fit onto 8 ½ x 11 sheets of paper. A more practical approach is to export a zoning map from GIS into KML, a file format for web based geography. Most software packages now export to this format. Google Earth will display a kml file and position it on the map automatically.
This creates the opportunity to interact with parcels and zoning maps at the same time. Every parcel could have a photograph and documents that can be accessed within Google Earth.
A Plan Web Site
A web site is the way to inform and engage public officials, developers, and important stakeholders today. It provides a platform for planners to deliver up-to-the-minute information.
Most comprehensive plan web sites are either too technical for the average user or too simplistic. A single web page consisting primarily of PDF files is not a web site. Elaborate, custom web sites are expensive and are often underutilized. Many utilize complex mapping tools making it difficult to immediately find information. Plan web sites struggle to be successful because planners don’t realize there is a solution-a balance between usability, accessibility, and affordability.
A strategy for electronic communications must take into consideration the technical skill of planners as end users and content publishers. The public’s ability to navigate complicated maps or pages of PDF text must be addressed. Your strategy should include solutions for online mapping and plan implementation tracking. You should be able to access and update key information. The strategy should make your work easier.
After the plan has been approved, a web site can also provide a continuous access point for plan elements such as zoning maps and design guidelines to developers. Economic development efforts can be supported with visuals to get businesses and developers on board. Milestones can be updated and recognized as an accomplished task. Documents and maps can be accessible 24 hours a day, easily searched, and printed from anywhere in the world.
Community Support
It has been proven that communities are more likely to approve development plans if they had a role in shaping the plan. Beyond the physical community meeting, there are many ways to invite others to participate. Online tools can play a valuable role in gathering stories during the visioning phase and provide immediate feedback at later phases.
Community discussion tools can promote turnout and feedback for an improvement effort. A continuous flow of information can be accomplished. Planners can support community storytelling through a web site using Google maps, image sharing, oral histories, and discussion boards.
Direct the discussion with visuals. For instance, if design options for a corridor need to be presented, then put them in an image gallery. The ideal image gallery will let you provide text explanations to visual concepts.
Maintain enthusiasm for the planning effort by publishing milestone achievements. Plan goals and objectives should be available and continually updated. Project management software on the web site can be accessed by multiple departments and agencies.
There are web based applications for comprehensive plans and community outreach that have been utilized by municipalities with proven success. It seems, however, that the web and its capabilities need to be demystified to many planners before they can embrace a new model for comprehensive web sites. Hire a web expert who understands the goals of your planning project. An expert can provide the tools mentioned in this article and guide you through the emerging possibilities for your plan.
Tags: urban planning