Creating Communities of Choice: Stakeholder Participation in Community Planning

Abstract

: Community stakeholders can be valuable allies to city officials engaged in downtown regeneration and community planning. This project highlights the force of engaging such allies in planning initiatives. It focuses on a long-neglected community that was once a thriving African American cultural and commercial hub. Organized as a city-university collaborative, the project brought together a cadre of community stakeholders: a planning studio professor and graduate students; a professional planner; architects; preservationists; and area residents, business owners and community leaders. Stakeholders held several meetings to evaluate the overall needs of the area, discuss options that would allow the concurrency of neighborhood revitalization, historic preservation and commercial economic interests while adhering to existing design guidelines. The group’s work culminated in a proposed land use plan that is sensitive to the needs of families, businesses and the city’s revitalization efforts. The plan calls for creating built spaces that complement the natural environment and encourages integrating green initiatives with regenerative efforts. It proposes creating active parks; cultural, arts and entertainment districts; and zoning that allows for single and multifamily housing. It transforms the district into one that is mixed-use, economically viable, family-oriented and preserves the area’s authentically historic and cultural assets.

Designing a Framework of Stakeholders’ Participation in School Sport Decisions

“…Parents support programs, activities, and school sport plans. The school board is another stakeholder that can play a role in approving school sports programs, funding them, and monitoring implementation of school sport programs (22). Community is also an important stakeholder in schools sport.…”

Inclusive interactive simulation: stakeholder empowerment, satisfaction, and confidence in solution design and decision making

“…References to stakeholder participation across disciplines have become common in contemporary literature (Reed, 2008;Wesley & Ainsworth, 2018). However, consistent definitions for what constitutes true 'participation' have remained elusive.…”

Identifying Plan Perceptions: Higher Education Institutions as Arts and Cultural Anchors

“…Capitalizing on universities is often an explicit municipal economic development strategy that tries to tap into the creative economic energy and arts and cultural scene that universities generate (Ehlenz and Mawhorter 2022). Given traditionally low participation by community stakeholders in general planning efforts (Innes and Booher 2004), engaging university faculty and students has become more frequent, especially in neighborhoods experiencing decline or for communities that have been historically marginalized (Reardon 2006;Lambert-Pennington, Reardon and Robinson 2011;Neal et al 2014;Wesley and Ainsworth 2018;Jackson, Holmes and McCreary 2020). Similarly, we would expect to see universities featured prominently in cultural plans and university leaders as valued participants in the planning process.…”