Planning Commissioners Journal

Be a Partner With Your Schools

Tip 11 of 25
from Elaine Cogan

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In too many communities, planning stops at the school door. At the same time that boards of education are dealing with the challenges of overcrowded schools in one area and others that are under-utilized, planners are choosing housing policies that affect the demographics of these same schools. This behavior is encouraged when their governing bodies and sources of revenue are separate.

While such divisions of responsibility may have made sense in the past, this is less defensible in today’s era of growing needs, finite resources, and a demanding citizenry. Enlightened planning commissioners should take the responsibility of bridging that divide without dividing the community.

Has your planning board ever met formally or informally with the school board? Do your planners work with school staff on issues that concern you both? Do you have early notice of plans for new schools or playgrounds? Do you inform them of prospective zoning changes that  affect the schools? If school officials need a zoning or comprehensive plan change, do they involve you in the pre-proposal stage? What community needs could be satisfied by joint planning?

Consider transportation. What can you do to help make schools easier to access by foot or bike? Will the next new school be built in an area that is accessible for children walking or bicycling? Can school parking lots be used by neighborhood businesses when schools are closed?

Consider sharing. Few communities have enough libraries, parks, and places for community meetings and cultural events. Schools have many of these, often closed to the general public.  Joint planning and/or co-ownership can benefit all.

Your planning board is the ideal body to initiate dialogue with school officials. Show them your plans in process and invite their comments. Ask them about their short and long-range facility and property needs. Talk about common issues and concerns and how they can be solved in a cooperative, cost-effective fashion. After laying the groundwork, agree on a project on which you can act jointly and direct your staffs to do everything possible to make it a success.

The most effective planning boards continually demonstrate their understanding that the community is served best if its individual components work as an interdependent whole rather than a series of unrelated parts. By becoming partners with the schools you will demonstrate your commitment to serving the community, not enhancing your individual fiefdoms. All will benefit.

For more on the relationship between schools and planning, see the articles in our Fall 2004 special focus issue.

Note from Planning Commissioners Journal Editor Wayne Senville: we're pleased to be posting over the next half-year, on a weekly basis every Wednesday, PCJ columnist Elaine Cogan's 25 tips for planning commissioners from her excellent Now That You're on Board Publication.

We hope this will provide a convenient opportunity for planning commissioners and other "citizen planners" to benefit from Cogan's years' of experience in working with communities. The complete attractively-designed, spiral-bound, Now That You're on Board publication is also available for purchase and delivery by mail.

Affordable Modern Prefab

Is it possible to design & build a distinctive looking modern prefabricated house? Take a look at this short video about Alchemy Architect's weeHouse being installed in various sites and configurations. For more detailed information about the weeHouse.

Early in the video there's a reference to the Lustron House, an early post-World War II effort to develop attractive manufactured homes. We found an interesting 15 minute video about the history of the Lustron and efforts to preserve one Lustron house.

For more on the signficance of the Lustron, take a look also at planning historian Laurence Gerckens' short piece "The Unfulfilled Promise of High Tech Housing" (and accompanying sidebar by Beth Orenstein with more on the Lustron) -- this was one section of our special issue, The Promise of America: Ten Successes and Ten Failures that Shaped the 20th Century American City (available to order & download).

Planning Is Not Just for Adults

Tip 10 of 25
from Elaine Cogan

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What do kids know about planning? Not much, if you use jargon such as zoning, setbacks and conditional use. What can they contribute to planning in your community? Plenty! But only if you give them opportunities to express themselves in their own language and in their own way. Terminology familiar to professional and lay planners is sure to turn them off. But talk about putting a large retail store across from their favorite park, whether to build a skateboard facility near the high school or put speed bumps downtown, and you will get their attention.

With a little care, you also can find rewarding ways to involve young people in the big picture --envisioning the future.

Have a contest, but keep it simple and uncomplicated. Ask children of all ages, “what do you want our community to be like when you grow up?” Encourage poems, essays, plays and stories, models and posters, and you will be surprised and delighted at their imaginative and creative responses.

Seek media, business, and other sponsors. Local newspapers and television stations generally cooperate in highlighting good news about young people, and businesses like to have their names linked with such good works. Two high school visionaries in a project I managed recently wrote a rap song about the future and received front page coverage in the local press. They also were invited to sing at a luncheon of a civic club and on a local radio station. Their peers loved it, though most adults had difficulty understanding the words.

Involve the principals and the teachers in all the schools ... public and private, as well as those involved in home schooling. Make the planning staff and commission members available to speak in classrooms, taking care to put the planning issues you are dealing with in terms of real situations young people face. Inspire the youth and you will inspire their parents.

Make it easy to participate. Have no rules except age limits. Supply sufficient application forms to all schools and community centers and make them available on the Internet.

Encourage all to participate. The contributions of grade schoolers will necessarily be less sophisticated than those of middle and high schoolers, but the depth of the ideas of all ages will surprise you. Make special efforts to involve young people in minority communities.

Give all participants recognition. Buttons or caps are as welcome as expensive prizes and can be paid for by business sponsors. The best recognition is to display the results prominently where people congregate. The local library, city hall, shopping mall ... each community has its own center of activity. Announce they will be shown at your next community meeting and you will attract a cadre of  parents and grandparents who go wherever their children’s creations are  posted.

Most importantly, after the young people have had their say, make sure their comments are considered when the planning decisions are made. Given opportunities to express themselves in their own special ways, young people’s wisdom and insights not only can add to the quality and fabric of your community but be a training lesson for future leaders.

Note from Planning Commissioners Journal Editor Wayne Senville: we're pleased to be posting over the next half-year, on a weekly basis every Wednesday, PCJ columnist Elaine Cogan's 25 tips for planning commissioners from her excellent Now That You're on Board Publication.

We hope this will provide a convenient opportunity for planning commissioners and other "citizen planners" to benefit from Cogan's years' of experience in working with communities. The complete attractively-designed, spiral-bound, Now That You're on Board publication is also available for purchase and delivery by mail.

Doing a Walking Audit

"Walkability is the single most important issue facing cities today," says planner Troy Russ in this Friday's short video about doing a "walking audit" in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The video is by the Center for Planning Excellence in Louisiana.

For another excellent example of how to do a walkability survey, see the Kansas City, Missouri, Neighborhood Walking Survey tool (pdf file). 

Older Citizens Have Much to Offer

Tip 9 of 25
from Elaine Cogan

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Although there always will be retirees who travel or migrate to other climes, most people are “aging in place,” staying in the communities where they have their roots. Reaching and engaging them as citizen planners is both a challenge and an opportunity for your planning board.

First, realize their worth. They have longevity and history, and well remember what may or may not have aroused controversy in the past. Certainly, times change, but it is always helpful to be apprised of any context that would help smooth the way for current ideas.

Second, meet and greet them on their own turf. Make presentations or even hold a community meeting at retirement facilities or senior centers. They usually have ample meeting space and welcome visitors.

Accommodate their few special needs. Schedule some meetings in the daytime. For their easy reading, reproduce handouts or explanatory material in larger than normal print. If you are making a presentation in even a medium-sized room, use a microphone.

When considering new zoning regulations, appeal to their pride by showing how the proposals will enhance the livability of the community and increase the value of their homes. Recognize their self-interest as grandparents by showing how changes will benefit the younger generation. Ask their advice about their priorities and try to accommodate them.

For your next workshop or public event, invite young people from a nearby high school to bring their grandparents or older friends. Encourage a dialogue between the generations. For example, when planning a new park, if you consider the needs of older citizens for benches and rest areas, they may be more inclined to support play areas and ball fields.

Older residents also can be valuable members of your planning board. Every commission benefits from having a healthy mix of ages and interests. If yours does not currently include an older citizen, find one who is willing to be involved when you have your next vacancy. If you have a citizens advisory board or special subcommittees, consider retirees for those positions as well.

Show retirees they still count by tapping into their wisdom and availability. Planning in your community will be enriched.

Note from Planning Commissioners Journal Editor Wayne Senville: we're pleased to be posting over the next half-year, on a weekly basis every Wednesday, PCJ columnist Elaine Cogan's 25 tips for planning commissioners from her excellent Now That You're on Board Publication.

We hope this will provide a convenient opportunity for planning commissioners and other "citizen planners" to benefit from Cogan's years' of experience in working with communities. The complete attractively-designed, spiral-bound, Now That You're on Board publication is also available for purchase and delivery by mail.

Getting Uphill

Sometimes it can be a challenge to get uphill. But here are two worthy solutions. The first is an innovative bicycle lift in Trondheim, Norway. The second is the 4th Street Elevator in Dubuque, Iowa, one of the remaining funiculars still in use in the U.S. Message to transportation planners: we need more of both of these modes of transport. Getting uphill should be fun! Ah ha -- that's why it's called a funicular.

The Importance of Reaching Out

Tip 8 of 25
from Elaine Cogan

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Does anyone on your planning staff or board speak or understand Russian? Laotian? Spanish? How well do you communicate with the non-English speaking members of your community? How good is your pipeline to their concerns and viewpoints?

If you are not already actively doing so, consider extending your reach to the citizens of your community for whom English is not their first language. Just because they do not attend planning hearings or meetings that are natural to you and others in the majority community, it is folly to believe they do not care, especially if they live in areas affected by your decisions.

Reaching out takes time and special effort. For example, before considering sensitive land use changes in an area where there has been little or no response to your familiar ways of communicating with citizens, do not give up. Contact church leaders, social workers, school principals, local business owners, and community leaders. Tell them you sincerely want to get a sense of the attitudes of the residents toward  planning issues likely to be controversial or important to them.

Be prepared to be surprised and hear about concerns you may not have thought of. Pledge to take these into consideration when you deal with  specific issues and give them feedback that shows you have listened, even if you feel you have to make an decision that may appear adverse to their interests.

Non-English speaking people may come from cultures less familiar with and even suspicious of the democratic give-and-take we take for granted. By expecting more absolutes from government, they may think it is useless or even dangerous to express a contrary opinion. It takes patience to help them overcome these perceptions.

In a recent planning project, we were having no success reaching Spanish-speaking people through regular means. After talking with community leaders, we found that this closely knit community was not comfortable going outside their neighborhood for public meetings. Instead, it was suggested we come to their church after religious services. Enlisting the help of their pastor and a translator, we held a very successful meeting, and heard concerns we never would have anticipated, at 11:30 Sunday morning.

Other outreach efforts should include placing notices in community newspapers and translating information about meetings and proposed planning actions into their common  language. Employ local translators whenever possible.

You make important planning decisions that affect those who speak English -- and those who do not. By doing everything you can to mitigate the negative effects of cultural and language barriers, you will enrich your community and truly be able to say that you plan for all.

Note from Planning Commissioners Journal Editor Wayne Senville: we're pleased to be posting over the next half-year, on a weekly basis every Wednesday, PCJ columnist Elaine Cogan's 25 tips for planning commissioners from her excellent Now That You're on Board Publication.

We hope this will provide a convenient opportunity for planning commissioners and other "citizen planners" to benefit from Cogan's years' of experience in working with communities. The complete attractively-designed, spiral-bound, Now That You're on Board publication is also available for purchase and delivery by mail.

Art, Traffic Calming, & Community

Is it possible to combine art, traffic calming, and community involvement? The answer in Ocean City, New Jersey, is a resounding "yes" -- as you'll see in this interesting 10 minute video. To learn more about Ocean City's Community Art Projects. Our thanks to Bryan Davis of the Chittenden County (Vermont) Regional Planning Commission for alerting us to this video. If there are any online videos you'd like to alert us to, email us at: pcjoffice@gmail.com

Speak Out

Tip 7 of 25
from Elaine Cogan

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As a planning board member, you see first hand the beneficial effects of good planning in your community. You spend hours in meetings and hearings and brief yourself with reports and field trips. That is your “job description” and you should have known what you were volunteering for when you agreed to serve. Still, how much do you know about what planning issues are on the minds of the average citizen? How much do they know about what planning is all about?

This two-way sharing of information is invaluable to your optimal performance, but it requires you and the other commissioners to move off the dais and into the community. Although it may take even more of your time away from your business or family, it can be controlled, and it definitely will be worthwhile.

If you are fearful of giving a talk, think again. No one can be more effective than a citizen planning commissioner when presenting information about planning to a group of citizens.

Enlist staff to help you organize a speech, possibly accompanied by slides, on the benefits of planning to your community and current projects of interest. Make sure it is free of jargon and “plannerese,” with examples to which people can relate. Show “before” and “after” pictures of how planning decisions have added to the quality of life in your community and talk about unfinished business. Practice until you are comfortable with the text and the technology.

When you are sufficiently prepared, ask staff to notify service and civic clubs that you and the other planning board members are available for presentations at their meetings. You will be surprised at how many take you up on the offer.

Your speech should be no more than 15 minutes, with time for questions. This allows listeners to clear up any ambiguities or points they may not understand and gives you additional opportunities to get your message across. Avoid arguments or feeling you should defend a specific decision, and of course, do not talk about any pending case.

Speak in well understood words and phrases. Even lay planning commissioners -- if they have been around any length of time -- can start talking in "plannerese." That's alright if your audience is staff or other commissioners. It is not alright when talking to the public. Avoid jargon whenever you can, but if you must use words or acronyms such as infill, density bonuses, PUDs, or FAR (or others particular to your location), explain what they mean.

Staff can help with displays and  technical data, but the message is most powerful when citizens such as yourselves talk to other citizens. You may be challenged by a few but, generally, people will be glad you came to talk with them and welcome your open attitude and willingness to share information.

Reach out and speak out when there is no controversy and people will tend to trust you when the inevitable contentious times arise.

Note from Planning Commissioners Journal Editor Wayne Senville: we're pleased to be posting over the next half-year, on a weekly basis every Wednesday, PCJ columnist Elaine Cogan's 25 tips for planning commissioners from her excellent Now That You're on Board Publication.

We hope this will provide a convenient opportunity for planning commissioners and other "citizen planners" to benefit from Cogan's years' of experience in working with communities. The complete attractively-designed, spiral-bound, Now That You're on Board publication is also available for purchase and delivery by mail.