Integration of Remote Public Participation Methodology into the Planner’s Toolkit

by Brittany Skelton, Western Planner Board Member, Idaho

Community engagement is the holy grail of planning – whether at the block, neighborhood, city, county, regional, or special-interest topical scale. When the COVID-19 pandemic took hold across the nation community engagement as we knew it was upended. Methods beloved by planners—in-person workshops, multi-day charrettes, tabling at other community events, presenting at public meetings—came to a screeching halt. Many government offices shuttered for periods of time as staff worked from home and City Council, Planning Commission, and other public board meetings transitioned to virtual formats. In some jurisdictions, planning processes were paused, as were the decision-making processes for land use applications.

One year after the first diagnosed case of COVID-19 in the United States, a plethora of new methods and best practices to gain public input—from afar—have emerged. Prior to the pandemic, written comment in advance of a meeting or hearing was the tried-and-true method planners encouraged citizens to use if they couldn’t, or were not interested in, attending a meeting. It is common knowledge among planners that not everyone who has something to say can, or prefers to, attend a public meeting at a set time and place. Sometimes, the time and place conflicted with family life, work schedules, and other obligations. Other times, the remote distances and inclement weather in counties that cover hundreds of miles in the West deterred in-person participation. Because of this, planners have always sought new ways to gain input outside of the in-person public hearing and other in-person formats in order to broaden the spectrum of voices heard. 

The round-up of best practices and new methods that have emerged during the pandemic can continue to be utilized long into the future—new arrows in the planner’s quiver. In rural communities in the West, when time and distance, harvest season, blizzards, and other factors will continue to preclude in-person participation in the future, the methods contained in the following resources can continue to offer inclusive, equitable, and broad opportunities for citizens to give input on the applications and plans affecting their communities.

Print resources:

  • Tools and Resources for Remote Community Engagement – Resources During COVID-19, from the U David Center for Regional Change https://regionalchange.ucdavis.edu/blog/tools-and-resources-remote-community-engagement-resources-during-covid-19

  • Learning from the Pandemic to Create More Equitable Community Engagement, by Gray Dougherty of Gensler https://www.gensler.com/blog/using-pandemic-to-create-more-equitable-community-engagement

  • Practices for Engagement in the Time of Covid from the Salt Lake City Civic Engagement Team https://www.slc.gov/can/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2020/04/Best-Practices-for-Engagement-During-COVID-19.pdf

  • Community Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond: A Guide for Community-Based Organizations, from the Urban Institute https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/102820/community-engagement-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-beyond.pdf

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About the Author

Brittany Skelton is the Community Development Director for the City of Sun Valley, and previously in nearby Ketchum but a large part of her heart will always be in the Tetons, where she lived and worked as the City of Victor’s Planning Administrator from 2013-2016. Learn more at her website www.communityandplace.com.

Paul Moberly