Community Planning

Community Planning workshops are generally used for complex or controversial projects that require a considerable amount of community involvement. They bring together representatives with strong local or skill based knowledge in an interactive format to formulate ideas, solutions and outcomes in a real world planning situation. It does devolve a large amount of responsibility for the initial design of a (non-binding) masterplan to local representatives and utilises the principles of best practice and sustainability.

The workshops are run in close partnership with the planning authority. The attendees are agreed with the council, developers, land owners, etc. which minimises the opportunity for the agenda to be set by a particular group. The workshops are facilitated by planners, architects and environmental consultants to try and achieve consensus.

The benefits of the approach are:

• Community buy-in on a project
• An ability to understand in detail the community issues and potential pitfalls very early in a project
• It allows the community to understand the opportunities and constraints of a site in terms of design and encourages compromise
• The format of the workshops means that the process is unlikely to be hijacked by a dominant group

A facilitator and organiser are needed to liaise with stakeholders, record and report on the process, prepare materials and for the continuation of the dialogue once the process has ended.