This week I learnt about stakeholders who can influence the decisions made by planners. Examples of stakeholder would include residents, local businesses, various levels of government and local authorities. They become involved and informed via some form of consultation.
We also explored differing levels of participation in planning e.g. public/private participation and methods that allow for community interest groups to develop their own policy proposals.
Further, we explored Community involvement and engagement from:
A Government perspective – on how they should be listening to residents (as they are the tax payers).
And,
A community perspective – on how the community should participate in planning (as they are direct beneficiaries).
Our teacher gave an example from Tokyo where residents in a suburb were complaining about not having enough sunlight due to high-rise buildings (which I think may have come about from not having enough say in the planning process). So they took their case to court and the judge said that the high rise buildings, that they had already built, needed to be brought down to 7 stories.
The benefits of having community engagement can include:
· Development of shared identity
· Increase in Knowledge and identity
· Conflict resolution
· Community resilience
And,
· Lowering transaction costs
It can aid in balancing conflicting priorities and encourage value sharing among groups with different values.
We then covered the various methods for community engagement by looking through a booklet called A guide to community engagement and consultation.
The booklet included such methods as:
· Public consultation
· Online surveys
· Articles in print media
· Letterbox drops
· Advertisements
· Workshops (e.g. section 49 in Kingston) and they can be done in a public venue like a hall or church.
Good summary of the class!
ReplyDeleteI wonder how you thought about the conflict case in Japan? What would happen if there is not enough community involvement in the planning in Australia? Any examples?
Thanks. Well the Japan example is short-and-sweet, so it fits in nicely.
ReplyDeleteIf there's a lack of community involvement in the planning process, then plans could be made to suit 'the few' rather than 'the many'. For example, when the Memorial's Development Committee (est. 2005) tried to get two very tall/large war memorials built on the edge of Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin, in front of Anzac Parade, critics (loudly) claimed there was a questionable level of community consultation and by the time the greater community had found out, a fight was on for the memorial plans’ removal.