Public Consultations
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PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS
Best Practices to Inform & Engage
When you’re planning a park project, when and how is the best time to gather feedback from the public about it?
As outlined in the Planning section, public feedback on your park masterplan provides a good guide for your development and growth strategy. Now that you have selected a park project, initiating another, more specific consulting process is worth the time and effort.
Overall, the methods to gather public feedback can be similar, but your timelines for responses, and ability to organize meetings needs to fit into your project management plan. Keep that in mind as you propose deadlines for the public engagement process. Gathering the information is just step one; integrating useful changes and addressing concerns in your park planning project will also require time.
Civic engagement is often a requirement of a project approvals process for a community. Ensuring that you and your organization provide ample opportunities to gather and respond to feedback from the public prior to any other project work is an essential piece of your presentation to decision makers.
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Public Consultation Methodology: Developing a Process
Consider Timelines
Consider Methods
Park projects requiring public consultation may not be a regular occurrence, so having a process that guides a thorough and efficient consultation period is useful.
Allowing enough time for public consultation should be balanced with the overall anticipated timelines for the project as a whole. Depending on the methods to engage the public, you may need extra time to plan public meetings, and to develop materials necessary to educate participants about the project.
Once the public consultation period is complete, you will need time to organize the feedback received into a report for decision makers. Ideally, you want constructive feedback that contributes to the project’s improvement, so take the necessary time to engage meaningfully.
The scope of the project is likely to guide what methods for soliciting public information are warranted. Smaller projects or upgrades to existing amenities may require a shorter consultation period with specific goals. Larger projects with higher impact on residents and surrounding communities benefit from opportunities and methods of gathering information.
Methods used by Meewasin Valley Authority include:
surveys posted on social media and their website;
press releases to provide information on the project;
signs along the Meewasin Valley with links to provide feedback online;
public information sessions;
webinars;
posting relevant information resources online and requesting feedback.
Depending on the project, they may engage a consultant to assist with open houses that are designed to both inform and to provide a forum for extensive in person feedback.
Since public consultation periods are designed to both inform and engage, ensure that you have materials prepared that communicate project goals, and that explain the benefits, and the costs, of the project.
A project may be considered important enough to move ahead without full public support; however, consultation periods can provide opportunities to engage, and for residents to bring up concerns that you could address during project development.
Consider Outcomes
The public consultation process is important, and in some cases could lead to changes in the project’s trajectory. Information gathered from public consultation could provide valuable information for the development process, so ensure that consultation happens early enough to be taken into consideration before budgets are set and consultants are hired.
If an initial consultation based on an estimated project cost goes well, but the project costs change due to unforeseen circumstances, you may be required to go back to the consultation process before taking new budget projections to the next level of decision makers.
A step by step guide to gathering feedback can help ensure that each round of feedback is comparable, and will give you better information to present to the board or council during subsequent presentations.
The Meewasin Valley Authority has a well developed public consultation process that is mandated in their development policies. With knowledgeable staff, a streamlined process for gathering surveys, and a well developed contact list to share updates, they can manage public consultations internally that meet their needs.
CHECKLIST ITEMS
Develop a public consultation process, including estimated timelines based on the extent and methodology, to both inform and engage the public with your project.
Create a method of curating public feedback to inform project developing changes, or to include in a report to supplement presentations to decision makers.
Kiwanis Memorial Park, Meewasin Valley, Saskatoon