Community Consultation and Urban Planning

A discussion on principles and procedures for making consultation work, a 2001 report by Dr. Lyn Carson and Dr. Katharine Gelber for the government of New South Whales (Australia), was commissioned to look at issues surrounding community consultation during the state's urban planning process.

The report suggests various community involvement tools including: "search conferences, citizens’ juries, consensus conferences, focus groups, charrettes, residents’ feedback panels, and deliberative polls/tele-voting."

The challenge with some of the above is getting enough people to participate as to allow for meaningful results.

The ONE (Old North End) Change charrette last fall was very well attended by community stakeholders. A charrette is “An intensive design process that involves the collaboration of all project stakeholders at the beginning of a project to develop a comprehensive plan or design”
(http://commpres.env.state.ma.us/content/glossary.asp).

More of these tools might be effective for Saint John's future urban planning. If the city moves forward with putting together new in-fill building guidelines, these tools might be utilized in reaching community consensus and strong plans.

In the case of in-fill building guidelines, if effective community engagement takes place, the policies that emerge will be endorsed by the community, and the city will be more likely to adopt the guidelines than those that were put together and shelved in 1994.

Moreover, to quote from Carson and Gelber: "Good community consultation can help create community members who are able to see themselves, and be seen, as active and engaged citizens who are resourceful, gifted and creative."