A Note On Public Participation

Any planning program has to make sure that the public is involved. However, the degree of citizen input and the approach to obtaining it can vary widely. Different techniques and levels of involvement are necessary to fit the scale of the community and the issues being debated.

To be useful, a public participation program has to be structured so that the citizenry can either direct plan development or react to it. The directive approach is a long process and encourages the use of citizen involvement to develop goals, objectives and policies as an initial part of the plan development program. To do this, interested citizens are recruited into the planning process and are involved in a structured program aimed at identifying issues and agreeing upon the goals, objectives and policies that guide the development of the plan. The structured program could be quite ambitious and consist of the use of community-wide questionnaires and meetings where the goals, objectives and policies are discussed. Jacques Gourguechon, Principal Consultant of Camiros, pioneered the use of this approach within the Chicago area in his development of the Naperville plan in the early 1970's and has been involved in similar public goal-setting programs throughout the nation.

Alternatively, a highly structured public participation program could be quite simple and consist mainly of a series of open public forums to identify and air issues of community concern. As a general rule, more involved participation approaches are most useful when there are numerous unresolved community issues or when the community is polarized over certain questions. The greater the consensus as to how to approach community issues, the less the need for involved public participation techniques.

A highly structured public participation process for plan development is a relatively costly and time consuming process. In certain instances it may not be the best process. Owing to time constraints, the issues being confronted, and/or the history of planning and public involvement within a community, a more reactive approach is sometimes most useful. Under this approach, materials are developed and a public participation process is structured to encourage citizens to react to, rather than develop, ideas. In this manner, citizens have tangible proposals to evaluate and discuss. This is often a useful approach to public participation when highly nebulous concepts, such as growth alternatives and the character of development, are of concern.