[INSIGHTS]

Planners, like any other professionals, live in a kind of bubble. Those charged with dealing with the public run the risk of expecting too much from residents as they design community engagement activities. Here are some of the most common mistakes. It's great to focus on the positive and celebrate the best case studies, but sometimes it's useful to learn from our mistakes. For the purposes of...

Ensuring that community engagement opportunities are open to all residents is not only the law, it's also good for planning. Incorporating a diversity of viewpoints improves plans, facilitates implementation, and frankly leads to better communities that meet the needs of all residents. Unfortunately too often the accessibility discussion doesn't get out of first gear. When it comes to ensuring open and inclusive public engagement, it's critical...

Scenarios aren’t new but they certainly have evolved. While the concept of scenario planning can be traced back to the military, planners have been using scenarios for decades. In a nutshell, scenario planning involves creating a variety of possible alternative futures and using them to inform dialog about choices and then ideally, decision making. It’s a kind of “what-if?” exercise. Having been involved in scenario planning...