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 ommunity preservation and enhancement are based on the idea that it is the residents of a municipality that, through their love of place and willingness to get involved, will decide the future of each town and city. For those who have not been extensively engaged in issues of local land use, the first question likely to arise is: how do I get involved? The second question, given limited time and energy and the desire to see outcomes from one’s participation , is likely to be: how can I make my participation as effective as possible? This chapter introduces these two topics. We begin with a fairly general discussion of the local land-use process, including where and when residents can most effectively involve themselves in planning decisions. The focus of this chapter is getting involved as an individual in the usual sort of town planning processes. Sometimes, one needs to create coalitions with other individuals and groups to try to get more major change implemented outside the usual planning procedures; this is the topic of chapter 2. Pressure Points for Resident Influence One of the amazing, frustrating, and wonderful things about local land use is that, while there usually is some professional staff, it is the residents of towns and cities that ultimately control it. That control is exerted in three ways. First is the issue of who gets elected as mayor or to city council or town meeting. Second is that the key decisions on land use, such as the comprehensive plan and the town’s zoning, are made by volunteer boards of citizens. Third is the ability of residents to influence the decisions of those boards. Planning staff provide advice and information, but it is the municipality’s volunteer boards and elected officials that decide. (Note that while we will occasionally use the term “citizen” in this discussion, for most situations citizenship per se is not important; the issue is whether someone is a resident of the town or region. Legal aliens have a right to participate in public hearings too, and in some instances Getting Involved Local Residents and the Planning Process Elisabeth M. Hamin and Jeff Levine 1 C 10 Gathering Perspectives and Getting Involved those without papers can and should be involved as well, particularly when decisions will affect them.) Some of the key areas for resident involvement include: • Comprehensive planning: The comprehensive plan is a policy statement endorsed by the elected officials of a town about the directions for the town’s future, its policies, and the ways those policies will be implemented. When a municipality draws up or revises a comprehensive plan, officials and their consultants will almost always engage in a significant effort to get residents to review the plan and comment. Because the comprehensive plan usually becomes the basis for future zoning and planning decisions , getting engaged in this process is crucial to shaping the “big picture” future of your town. At this stage there can be a lot of creativity, such as thinking about starting a historic district, limiting building in floodplains, or recommending design review for extra-large homes. In most states, comprehensive planning and changes to the existing plan are undertaken by the local planning board. Comprehensive planning is described more thoroughly in chapter 5. • Public meetings: As a municipality considers its future, it often will (and should) hold public meetings to get a sense of the community’s priorities. These may not have direct outcomes—in other words, they may not result directly in zoning or planning changes—but they often set the long-term direction for the town. Attending so that one can influence direction early, while the agenda for change is still mutable, can have a real impact. It can be difficult, however, to know which meetings will have real results and which are exploratory “fishing expeditions ”; judgment and perhaps a call to the planning staff in your town will help sort out what meetings are really important. Therearethreebasictypesofpublicmeetings:informational meetings, public hearings, and workshops/charettes. Each type has its own rules and norms. An informational meeting is designed to give the public news, not to take feedback from the public. Questions are appropriate at informational meetings, but feedback about whether ideas are good or bad is not the focus of the meeting. A public hearing is designed to both give information and take feedback on the information presented. This is either a formal chance to provide input or a less formal chance to discuss...

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