Plan Fort Collins - Fort Collins, Colorado
Website for More Information: www.fcgov.com/planfortcollins
Overview:
PlaceMatters partnered with Clarion Associates and a multi-disciplinary team to update Fort Collins, Colorado’s Comprehensive Plan. PlaceMatters worked with the City and the project team to design and implement a public engagement process that focused on multi-channel participation and transparency, while highlighting the City’s existing work on sustainability issues.
PlaceMatters guided the city in creating innovative methods for gathering input throughout the process. PlaceMatters conducted a 650 person keypad polling event, consulted the City on a multi-media online input strategy, and we supported live meetings with the Brainstorm Anywhere suite of tools. PlaceMatters also worked with the City, Clarion Associates, and team members the Brendle Group and Fehr and Peers to investigate tools to measure progress toward indicators.
Tools and Methods:
The Fort Collins Comprehensive Plan Update process, called "Plan Fort Collins" was launched with an event on March 3rd, 2010 with over 650 attendees (click here to watch the video). Futurist Thomas Frey was the keynote speaker of the kickoff event. PlaceMatters provided keypad polling so attendees could respond to Frey’s presentation, providing feedback about their wishes for the future of the City in the next 50 years, as well as evaluating current City policies and identifying attributes attendees felt were important to preserve.
The kickoff meeting was followed by smaller meetings that specifically addressed the City’s current status with respect to nine areas, including transportation, the built environment, housing, and more. The project team asked meeting participants to identify opportunities and challenges in each of these topic areas. PlaceMatters’ Brainstorm Anywhere tool was used to gather lists of ideas, sort the ideas into categories, and then quickly create polls for prioritizing future opportunities in each area, greatly streamlining the meeting process and providing immediate results so participants can see how their input is impacting the process and the final plans.
Finally, PlaceMatters supported a set of meetings in June of 2010 that provided an opportunity for focus groups to get into more detail on strategies and opportunities around specific topics. These meetings also used keypads to evaluate potential future styles of development via a visual preference polling exercise.
Outcomes:
Plan Fort Collins was unanimously approved by the City Council in February 2011, with some requested revisions. City Council member Lisa Poppaw said, “This is really an impressive document.” The City’s long-range comprehensive plan for land use, the Transportation Master Plan, the Master Street Plan and the Pedestrian Plan were all updated via the Plan Fort Collins 14-month process.
Coverage in the Fort Collins Coloradoan:
- "Plan Fort Collins needs help from the community"
- "Plan Fort Collins event considers technology, demographics"
- “Plan Fort Collins heading toward home stretch”
- “Fort Collins adopts revisions of long-range plans”
Inside Plan Fort Collins Videos:
For more information
Contact Jocelyn Hittle
