November 9th & 10th Kick-Off Meeting

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The November 9th and 10th community meetings were designed based on a charette or brainstorming process. Participants were randomly assigned to one of 10 working groups that corresponded to the elements of the Community Plan. The Working Groups included: Natural and Scenic Resources and Open Lands, Recreation, & Trails Economic Development and Sustainability Transportation, Mobility & Circulation Historic Preservation Land Use Housing Community Design Capital Facilities Environmentally Sensitive Areas Growth Management The Working Group participants spent the majority of Saturday brainstorming what types of issues they felt should be addressed in their particular Community Plan element. The groups also developed mission statements and purpose statements that will help guide the direction for their plan element. During the two-day meeting, participants were invited to give their input on all elements of the plan via Post it Note comments. The Post it Note comments were collected and incorporated into each Working Groups meeting notes.
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Meeting Summary The issues raised by the various groups, mission defined and purpose statements are included under each Working Group section. Environmentally Sensitive Areas Working Group Natural and Scenic Resources and Open Space, Recreation, & Trails Working Group Economic Development and Sustainability Working Group Transportation, Circulation & Mobility Working Group Community Design Working Group Housing Working Group Land Use Working Group Growth Management Working Group Capital Facilities Working Group Historic Preservation Working Group Survey Did you find the meetings informative? Yes - 34 No - 3 Did you find that the meetings were a productive use of your time? Yes - 34 No - 7 Did you find that there was sufficient time to accomplish the outlined tasks? Yes - 21 No - 20 Did you feel that your input was valued? Yes - 39 No - 3 Do you prefer meetings involving groups or independent Processes? Group - 37 Independent - 3 Were the meetings at a convenient time? Yes - 38 No - 5 Would you prefer future meetings in the AM, Afternoon, or PM? PM - 21 AM - 8 Would you prefer future meetings on the weekdays or weekends? Either - 6 Weekdays - 19 Weekends - 18 General Comments The issues needed change. We should work on solutions. The problems have been the same for 20 years. Excellent introduction session. Look forward to seeing RFP and which firms respond. Keep the momentum going. Describe plan for the session at offset of mtg. So subsequent activities can better "tie in" to goal. Example: the voting process @ the end was invalid for votes could not be correctly counted since all listed items were written to close to each other. I think staff knew what it wanted from session and got it. All meeting did was say, yes we should do what didn't get done from last plan. Keep core groups intact. Although random assignments may be "easier" for staff, it ignores the expertise, interest, and passion of potential participants. To continue community meetings & participation groups effects towards our future endeavors as a whole. On page 2 of the handout it mentions a number of studies conducted by city, county, and chamber we would like to have copies of these economic studies. I have been involved in three similar planning events over the past 25 years. Ideas brought up in these meetings have pretty much been the same every time. We need more creative solutions and more aggressive implementation. Meetings should be streamlined. Too many tasks. Also, several people "voted" with many more dots than were given to them-skewing the results. Time for brainstorming was not sufficient & did not provide opportunity for all ideas. Voting at end was not fair as some people had extra stickers (a lot)! I was excited about the process but ended up being disappointed w/use of time & objectives. I found that spending 1/2 day writing mission statements was a waste of time, energy, resources talents, etc. Good job, loved it. I was most impressed w/ "facilitated process." I also learned how convoluted and interconnected these issues are and that was very valuable. Last tasks were rushed. Please, no facilitators such as the woman who ran the 9th & 10th meeting. Limited time, seems to me that more background & time is needed. Some on these techniques may work in a corporate environment in which everyone has a good grasp of the issues at hand and possible solutions, but I wonder how will it work with interested citizens who may not be aware of all the problems and possibilities involved. Less "fun & games" time with the facilitator. More "work" time. I like the mentoring idea. The people attending aren't a true cross section of the community. Excusing propel with real expertise on a topic isn't good. Random process is a flaw. Lets evaluate the old plan (which has worked) not devise a new plan. Also, economic dev. Wasn't a part of original plan isn't a planning issue & isn't an opportunity to bash tourism. RE: The working groups, you already had my comments. In recap, ensure a chairperson/primary contact for community w/APCC openness of process & regular periodic media/ inform releases include use of kiosk. Do not need a Congo line to become interested in community. Good format. There should be an opportunity for working groups to their topic with other stakeholders to share views and ideas, e.g. open space meet with PDR board. Our group thought more time should have been allotted to working on solutions and less time identifying problems/issues. Prior to creating RFPs go through old studies to see if they maybe e useable- try to save $$. Try to create evenly based groups by personal views, not all growth/no-growth in one group. This could be done via a personal questionnaire. I felt the facilitator was unrealistic in her time allocations. 5 minutes to have 8 people to give info was too short. Other times were too long. We really did get to down to anything significant. One of our group members was overbearing. Please do not use the same facilitator. Given the format for the meetings any staff person could have handled the facilitator's job. She was more of a hindrance than a help. The time allocations were completely unreasonable. Friday night's meeting could have been more productive. We came to work, not play! If the project groups get much bigger, I would be concerned with their productivity and ability to reach a consensus. Very impressed by the process & saw necessity for facilitator. I still have concerns about opening our groups to anyone, would hate for our work to be diluted. Provide bottled water and not just sodas. Good structure & process but not sufficient time to develop/refine group recommendations. I think we need to involve city & county youth! The following teachers should be contacted to see if they would be interested in involving their kids/classes-Bill McElvie, Candace Gilbertson, Tanna Brock, Lucy Ann Meyer. Next Steps Here's what will happen next in the Community Plan process: We'll collect all of the Working Group's statements and action items and incorporate them into the Request for Proposal (RFP) for potential consultants. The Area Plan Coordinating Committee will review the draft RFP at its December 13th meeting. The City Council and County Commissioners will ratify the RFP in December. The consultant will be hired around mid February, and the Working Groups will reconvene in April. The groups will work with the consultant to prepare a draft Community Plan. Our next community meeting will be scheduled in early to mid May to review the Issue Summaries that will be prepared based on these statements and action items.