Comments on: What role should the public play in planning? http://saportareport.com/blog/2009/02/what-role-should-the-public-play-in-planning/ Maria Saporta is a longtime Atlanta business, civic and urban affairs journalist with a deep knowledge of our city, our region and state. Thu, 17 May 2012 02:29:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Maria Saporta http://saportareport.com/blog/2009/02/what-role-should-the-public-play-in-planning/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Maria Saporta Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:37:14 +0000 http://saportareport.com/blog/?p=156#comment-4 Chick, Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts. I never expected the Lifelong Communities charrette to be a full-fledged public participation endeavor. My post was more in reaction to some of the general comments Andres Duany made about public participation in the planning process. Please know that I agree with much of Duany's observations about urban America and the future of development. But I strongly believe public participation plays a vital role in helping shape our communities. From my perspective, the Atlanta Regional Commission has always strived to include the public in its planning process. And I commend y'all for continuing that in the next stages of the Lifelong Communities design efforts. Maria Chick,
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts. I never expected the Lifelong Communities charrette to be a full-fledged public participation endeavor.
My post was more in reaction to some of the general comments Andres Duany made about public participation in the planning process.
Please know that I agree with much of Duany’s observations about urban America and the future of development.
But I strongly believe public participation plays a vital role in helping shape our communities.
From my perspective, the Atlanta Regional Commission has always strived to include the public in its planning process. And I commend y’all for continuing that in the next stages of the Lifelong Communities design efforts.
Maria

]]> By: CKrautler http://saportareport.com/blog/2009/02/what-role-should-the-public-play-in-planning/comment-page-1/#comment-3 CKrautler Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:31:39 +0000 http://saportareport.com/blog/?p=156#comment-3 While you make some important points about community participation in planning, you fail to acknowledge that the Lifelong Communities Charrette, hosted over the last nine days by the Atlanta Regional Commission, is in fact a regional charrette. We asked those who came, both to the individual workshops and the public meetings, to leave their assumptions at the door and to think on a large regional scale, not neighborhood by neighborhood. The designs that the Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ) teams have developed are regional models intended to inspire change. The process never was intended to involved full public participation. That would have been impossible with six sites over nine days. The Lifelong Communities Charrette is one of the most complex and challenging charrettes DPZ has ever undertaken. While we did not have time nor space to have everyone who is interested in a site to be in the room as the designers worked, each site sponsor had the opportunity to include neighborhood representatives, elected officials and developers in the conversation. And the comments the public made during the Saturday preliminary design review have been considered as DPZ worked to develop their final concepts. As we move forward, there will be plenty of opportunities for public participation. Each site sponsor will almost certainly hold additional community meets to obtain more feedback and support for the project. Furthermore, each local government has a community outreach process as they consider permitting and rezoning to give residents a chance to weigh in on the projects. Until then, let’s not let a couple of NIMBYs derail a process that is attempting to do what no one else in the country has attempted – re-imagine how we build communities and neighborhoods so that older adults are not forced out of places in which they have lived for years when they no longer want to mow the lawn or if their health status changes. Chick Krautler Atlanta Regional Commission While you make some important points about community participation in planning, you fail to acknowledge that the Lifelong Communities Charrette, hosted over the last nine days by the Atlanta Regional Commission, is in fact a regional charrette. We asked those who came, both to the individual workshops and the public meetings, to leave their assumptions at the door and to think on a large regional scale, not neighborhood by neighborhood. The designs that the Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ) teams have developed are regional models intended to inspire change.

The process never was intended to involved full public participation. That would have been impossible with six sites over nine days. The Lifelong Communities Charrette is one of the most complex and challenging charrettes DPZ has ever undertaken. While we did not have time nor space to have everyone who is interested in a site to be in the room as the designers worked, each site sponsor had the opportunity to include neighborhood representatives, elected officials and developers in the conversation. And the comments the public made during the Saturday preliminary design review have been considered as DPZ worked to develop their final concepts.

As we move forward, there will be plenty of opportunities for public participation. Each site sponsor will almost certainly hold additional community meets to obtain more feedback and support for the project. Furthermore, each local government has a community outreach process as they consider permitting and rezoning to give residents a chance to weigh in on the projects.

Until then, let’s not let a couple of NIMBYs derail a process that is attempting to do what no one else in the country has attempted – re-imagine how we build communities and neighborhoods so that older adults are not forced out of places in which they have lived for years when they no longer want to mow the lawn or if their health status changes.

Chick Krautler
Atlanta Regional Commission

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