I was invited yesterday to Ottawa to a national round table to present on some of our citizen engagement processes as they are recognized among the best. Primarily, I discussed our recent process to develop our local growth management structure. Some of the most interesting components included:
- a random telephone survey to get a baseline public opinions and concerns related to growth and the City’s future
- a Community By Design symposium that attracted several hundred people to explore sustainable approaches to growth management
- the use of an interactive software “game” where citizens could choose different futures for Guelph based on different decisions on growth management
- hands on exercises with lego and poker chips to identify future infill opportunities and population distribution in the city
- visualizations of key city streets under different growth scenarios
- a downtown design charette that created a model of the downtown that could accomodate 5000 more residents
- youth engagement process to redesign mainstreet sponsored by the Province of Ontario
Here are some images from these activities:
Building a city
Visualizing our future
Working with lego
Youth project
Downtown Charette model
Filed under: Blog, Excellence in Municipal Governance
