Far East Community Plan Public Engagement Evaluation
Figure 1: Far East Community Location
Introduction
The City of San Antonio has deployed various planning teams to gather information from different parts of the city to implement the SA Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan that was adopted in 2016 (Far East Community Area Plan Engagement Journal, 2023). This case study will evaluate community-based engagement strategies that aided in developing a draft visions and goals statement for the Far East Community Plan. The input received from the public helped draft a visions and goals statement as part of the first phase in the planning process which will provide direction to influence actions and realize the community’s goals in the following phases of the planning process (Far East Community Area Plan Engagement Journal, 2023). Additional phases to the planning process include plan development which encompasses topics such as land use, urban form, mobility, housing, and economic development (Far East Community Area Plan Engagement Journal, 2023). The utilization of public input in the first phase of the planning process is important because stakeholders had a chance to share their ideas and visions for the community which will help planners develop a productive and equitable plan for the area amid the topics previously mentioned.
Figure 2: Far East Community Area Plan Planning Phases
Engagement Deployment
The first phase of the planning process included five separate public engagement opportunities to aid in the development of the draft visions and goals statement. Planners working on the Far East Community Plan employed various engagement strategies which included: virtual meetings, community pop-up events, community meetings with an open-house format, and an online survey. Participation from community members was promoted through mediums such as social media (Facebook, Twitter, Nextdoor), email, flyers, phone calls, and mailers. The location of public engagement events included virtual platforms through Zoom and the District Two Senior Community Center.
Planners used these events to gather information about the Far East area and compile a list of strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities to influence the visions and goals statement for the upcoming community plan (Far East Community Area Plan Engagement Journal, 2023). Planners reported what community members liked about the Far East area as well as what is missing from the area (Far East Community Area Plan Engagement Journal, 2023). Idealized changes for the future of the Far East area were also reported after each public engagement event through a big idea station (Far East Community Area Plan Engagement Journal, 2023; Open House Meeting Summary - Far East Community Area Community Meeting #1, 2022). Planners obtained strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities from community members through online surveys, table talk sessions, and vision boards (Far East Community Area Plan Engagement Journal, 2023). The methods utilized at community events and meetings were able to facilitate a solid grounding with which planners could present a draft visions and goals statement for the plan to community members.
(Left to Right) Figure 3: Vision Board at Community Meeting #1. Figure 4: Engagement at Community Meeting #1. Figure 5: Planning Team Meeting 1 on Zoom.
Framework and Method
Planners working on the Far East Community Area Plan organized an open house meeting on June 21, 2022 for community members to share their thoughts on the Far East area and develop a vision that will guide the subsequent plan (Open House Meeting Summary - Far East Community Area Community Meeting #1, 2022). Open house style meetings are a form of advisory meetings that provide citizens with the opportunity to interact with planners and provide information about the community (Steiner et al., 2006). Planners utilized the time from the open house to collect comments from community members regarding the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of the Far East area (Open House Meeting Summary - Far East Community Area Community Meeting #1, 2022). Community members provided comments at separate stations which included vision boards, survey, and a big idea station (Open House Meeting Summary - Far East Community Area Community Meeting #1, 2022). This planning scenario was an opportunity for planners to engage with the public and gather information about the Far East area that would aid in developing a plan for the community (Nabatchi & Leighninger, 2015). The ability for community members to provide comments at an open house forum highlights a form of thin participation on behalf of planners (Nabatchi & Leighninger, 2015). In this case, the question lies in whether or not public comments from the open house did guide planners to draft a vision and goals statement that acknowledges comments and ideas from the community.
This case study reviewed meeting summaries from the first phase of the planning process where officials gathered public comments to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and big ideas of the Far East Area. Government documents did not reveal a specific methodology for how survey results and public comments from the vision boards were analyzed, but major take-aways and recurring themes were identified for the visions and goals statement (Open House Meeting Summary - Far East Community Area Community Meeting #1, 2022). However, methods such as textual analysis of public comments serve as a valuable form of identifying recommendations from the public and how they align with project goals (Griffin, 2023). In this case, comments from the big idea station were collected and compared to the project goals outlined in the draft visions and goals statement. The eight different goals from the draft visions and goals statement were utilized as pre-defined descriptive codes to evaluate the content from the big idea station.
Figure 6: Public Comments from Big Idea Station
Results
Comments posted by community members in the big idea station at Community Meeting #1 aligned with pre-defined descriptive codes. Planning theories such as sustainable development, food access, urban greening, multi-modal transportation, environmental justice, economic development, and housing are among some of the themes listed in the goals for the Far East Area. It is evident that these goals align with what some community members idealized for the Far East Area.
Code | Frequency | Example |
|---|---|---|
Goal 1: Improve comfort and safety throughout the area with improved lighting, signage, and enhancement of parks, trails, sidewalks, and other community assets. | 5 | “More street lights in FM 1346 between 1516 and Foster Rd” “find a permanent solution for re-appearing potholes” |
Goal 2: Increase access to healthy food and health care for all residents. | 2 | “for there to be equal access to housing, retail, grocery” “we need a hospital” |
Goal 3: Facilitate development patterns that include local employment and entertainment opportunities in one or more mixed use urban centers or arts districts that are highly walkable and connected and serve as an area destination. | 2 | “interested in restaurants eateries, recreational venues, things for enjoyment for our citizenry” |
Goal 4: Increase equitable access to parks, open space, trails, community gathering facilities, and recreational amenities. | 2 | “to have community centers that aren’t ran down in the community for our youth” |
Goal 5: Create housing, employment, goods and services that serve, support and are accessible to a variety of income levels, age groups, and multi-generational households. | 2 | “equal job opportunities for the people in the community” |
Goal 6: Encourage commercial development to be less auto-oriented and more walkable and provide a greater diversity of locally serving restaurant and retail options. | 1 | “How about a nice shopping mall (not another strip mall and improved roads leading to and through our beautiful area)” |
Goal 7: Improve comfort, safety and aesthetics throughout the Far East Area with tree-lined streets, other urban greening, and integration of sustainable infrastructure. | 1 | “shade trees & shading for kids and parents” |
Goal 8: Expand the amount and variety of multi-modal networks throughout the Far East Area. | 2 | “Safer bike lane w/ lights” “Better street & more sidewalks..instead of walking streets so you don’t get hit by cars” |
Table 1: Pre-defined descriptive codes, frequencies, and examples.
Evaluation and Takeaway
The utilization of public engagement strategies through the collection of comments served an effective purpose for devising a draft vision and goals statement for the Far East Area. The presence of multiple stations in an open house helped planners understand the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities in the community (Open House Meeting Summary - Far East Community Area Community Meeting #1, 2022). Furthermore, the big idea station at the open house meeting provided community members with an opportunity to provide an idea for the future of the area (Open House Meeting Summary - Far East Community Area Community Meeting #1, 2022). It is evident that planners wanted to align the goals of the plan with the idealized version of the area provided to them by community members.
The next phase of the planning process centers around revising the visions and goals statement and devising specific strategies that address the topics listed in the community goals (Far East Community Area Plan Open House #3 Summary, 2023; Far East Community Area Plan Planning Team Meeting #2, 2022; OPEN HOUSE MEETING SUMMARY - Far East Community Area Plan Community Meeting #2, 2022). The second open house provided community members with the opportunity to provide feedback to refine the draft visions and goals statement (OPEN HOUSE MEETING SUMMARY - Far East Community Area Plan Community Meeting #2, 2022). Planners adjusted the visions and goals statement in subsequent meetings to accommodate the changes provided by community members (Meeting Summary - Far East Community Area Plan Planning Team Meeting #3, 2022). Planners also engaged with community members by asking them to identify focus areas and draft a land use map at a later open house (OPEN HOUSE MEETING SUMMARY - Far East Community Area Plan Community Meeting #2, 2022).
Public engagement served an important role in capturing the future community members of the Far East Area would like to see. Planners were able capitalize on early engagement opportunities by understanding what community members feel is missing from the area and what they feel is strong about the area to influence later stages of the planning process. The collaborative efforts to devise a draft for the visions and goals statements highlights utilization of communicative action through planners maintaining participation and input from community stakeholders in the following phases of the project. Furthermore, in terms of Arnstein's Ladder of Citizen Participation, one could argue that planners involved with the Far East Area Community Plan are facilitating partnership with community members due to evidence of consideration of feedback from community members in the form of revisions to the visions and goals statement (Arnstein, 1969). This example of engagement should serve as guidance for other planners to follow to begin the planning process in an area to maximize the opportunity for collaboration.
Works Cited
Arnstein, S. R. (1969). A Ladder Of Citizen Participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 85(1), 24–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2018.1559388
Far East Community Area Plan Open House #3 Summary. (2023). City of San Antonio.
Far East Community Area Plan Planning Team Meeting #2. (2022). City of San Antonio.
Griffin, G. (2023, October 26). Textual Analysis. URP 5513 - Public Participation and Qualitative Analysis.
Meeting Summary—Far East Community Area Plan Planning Team Meeting #3. (2022). City of San Antonio.
Nabatchi, T., & Leighninger, M. (2015). Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy. Wiley Online Books.
OPEN HOUSE MEETING SUMMARY - Far East Community Area Plan Community Meeting #2. (2022). City of San Antonio.
Open House Meeting Summary—Far East Community Area Community Meeting #1 (p. 16). (2022). City of San Antonio.
Steiner, F. R., Butler, K., & Sendich, E. (2006). Planning and Urban Design Standards. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
