{"id":3985,"date":"2010-03-25T15:48:31","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T18:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingatlantic.ca\/?p=3985"},"modified":"2013-01-21T04:56:45","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T08:56:45","slug":"a-common-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/atlantic\/2010\/03\/25\/a-common-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"A Common Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In honour of Councilor Jennifer Watt’s recent motion<\/a> to Council to impose a ban on mega-concerts on the Halifax Common (up for debate at next week’s council meeting), Spacing Atlantic welcomes Jayme Melrose’s thoughts on the state of community consultation and collaboration (or lack thereof) throughout the Common development process. \u00a0Kindly cross-posted from the Halifax Media Co-op<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

For more information on the content of the planned ‘improvements’ and their debate, see Katie McKay’s earlier article<\/a><\/em>. <\/em><\/p>\n

HALIFAX – <\/strong>No planner worth their salt would make a planning decision without consulting the public first,\u201d says Maureen Ryan, a senior planner with HRM.\u00a0 But in January of this year, when HRM presented their plan for spending $3 million dollars on the Halifax North Common, the ‘consultation’ was little more than an information session, where residents had the opportunity to submit written comments.<\/p>\n

Even if a meaningful consultation had taken place, some citizens, academics, and community planners agree that consultation is not enough.\u00a0 They say the planning process, especially for a public space like the Halifax Common, can and should be done in a collaborative and participatory manner.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to develop a vision together first,\u201d says Kate MacKay of the Cities and Environment Unit, a team of community planners that has helped dozens of First Nations communities develop their own community visions.\u00a0 \u201cThe vision has to be tangible and action oriented.\u201d\u00a0 The community vision can then inform decisions, such as how the Halifax Common should be used.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity visions develop genuine engagement,\u201d says MacKay.\u00a0 \u201cThey are locally focused and focus on capacity building.\u00a0 This is more important than ever.\u00a0 We have so much local talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most public input opportunities consist of a presentation of sorts followed by an opportunity to ask questions or make comments.\u00a0 Letters can also be sent to councillors and newspapers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go to the forums, speak your few minutes, write your letters, – and then you have no idea who gets them or what happens to that information,\u201d says Pam deNicola, a long-time activist for the protection of farmlands and watershed in her West Haunts community.<\/p>\n

Most opportunities for input are one-way and one-time-only; there is rarely space for dialogue or for ideas and concerns to evolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the basic level, people need to feel heard,\u201d says Maureen Ryan, who is heading up a design process that goes against the trend of meaningless consultation.\u00a0 Ryan is senior planner on the Fall River Community Vision project. \u201c[Participants] need to know their input was taken into account in decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community Visions are a lengthy process offered through HRM’s Community Planning department.\u00a0 The goal is to work closely with residents to develop a plan for the aesthetic, economic, and physical direction for their community.\u00a0\u00a0 This vision then becomes their policy document.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people [residents of Fall River] are very capable,\u201d says Ryan, who believes it\u2019s not the job of planners to make the design decisions for a community. \u201cPlanners are here to help determine financial and technical feasibility of their ideas, and to ensure residents have the community development skills to carry out their projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Imagine Bloomfield Society used similar process to create a vision for the Bloomfield Centre when the future of the centre was in jeopardy.\u00a0 The project and process were resident-directed and every attempt was made to involve as many residents as possible.\u00a0 Instead of seeking feedback on a particular vision, the Society asked people to contribute their own vision.<\/p>\n

The outcome?\u00a0 Imagine Bloomfield created a feasibility study and gave it to HRM.\u00a0 Shortly after, HRM hired a consultant to do a feasibility study, which came to essentially the same conclusion.\u00a0 \u201cWe could have done it for $25,000 instead of the $75,000 they gave the consultant!\u201d laughs Susanna Fuller, a member of the Imagine Bloomfield Board of Directors.\u00a0 \u201cThe lesson is that the public can come up with an alternative solution.\u00a0 Plus, you end up with a stronger community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan echoes the benefits for the Fall River community,\u00a0 \u201cIt’s huge!\u00a0 We have an engaged community.\u00a0 People are working together to create their own festival, and database of volunteers.\u00a0 People are re-energized, and celebrating the good work of the community as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fall River and Bloomfield processes are both examples of participatory design.\u00a0 One of the key benefits of participatory design is that it allows conflicting stakeholders to work through problems:\u00a0 by engaging with each other participants have the opportunity to expand their perspective and change viewpoints.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere certainly is a case for participatory design,\u201d says Jill Grant, professor at Dalhousie’s School of Planning.\u00a0 \u201c[Examples show] it works best at the small scale, where people are working on a local problem.\u00a0 At that scale, residents [can] see the impacts of their actions and take responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, there are downsides to participatory design processes.\u00a0 First, they take time.\u00a0 Developing a design or plan can take years, and politics tend to work in shorter time period.\u00a0 Also, they take a lot of volunteer time from citizens, and many people do not have a plethora of spare time to offer unpaid.\u00a0 Finally, collaborative design necessitates flexibility \u2013 a person might think they have the best idea, but then it combines with another, goes off on a tangent, meets new material, and blooms unrecognisable \u2013 not easy for everybody.<\/p>\n

Which brings us back to the Halifax Common.\u00a0 Originally, it was a wetland, a scrubby floodplain for Freshwater Brook, where people could pasture their animals.\u00a0 As the population increased and the area urbanized, notions of appropriate use and the politics of land management became more complex.\u00a0\u00a0 Today, it is a central park, thoroughfare, and, according to HRM\u2019s new plan, will soon be $600 000 more mega-concert friendly.\u00a0 HRM\u2019s plan includes a hard, permanent sub-surface under some areas of the grass to it more adaptable to concerts and seating.<\/p>\n

Some Halifax residents feel the Common\u2019s focus should not be on Big Name shows that shut off the public space for concerts you need a ticket to get into, but there\u2019s currently no space for meaningful dialogue on the subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if the civic-minded could put their energy into construction rather than opposition and frustration?\u201d wonders Fuller.\u00a0 What if a collaborative design process had been used to create the Common plan?\u00a0 \u201cWhat combination of softball, community garden, stream restoration, concert venue, art installation, lounging, doggie heaven would Halifax come up with?\u00a0 How far could the citizenry make $3 million go?\u201d<\/p>\n

photo by Katie McKay<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In honour of Councilor Jennifer Watt’s recent motion to Council to impose a ban on mega-concerts on the Halifax Common (up for debate at next week’s council meeting), Spacing Atlantic welcomes Jayme Melrose’s thoughts on the state of community consultation and collaboration (or lack thereof) throughout the Common development process. \u00a0Kindly cross-posted from the HalifaxContinue reading “A Common Plan”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8014,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5860,5866,344,341],"tags":[953,1114,338,373,2243,2141,546,340,1082,351,2242,2241,2236,2235,2238,1105,695,2240,1977,2237,505,1839,391,2244,2239,385,499],"class_list":["post-3985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-green-space","category-politics","category-urban-design","tag-bloomfield-centre","tag-cities-and-environment-unit","tag-community-development","tag-construction","tag-consultant","tag-dalhousies-school-of-planning","tag-energy","tag-environment","tag-fall-river","tag-halifax","tag-imagine-bloomfield-board-of-directors","tag-imagine-bloomfield-society","tag-jayme-melrose","tag-jennifer-watt","tag-jill-grant","tag-kate-mackay","tag-katie-mckay","tag-maureen-ryan","tag-member","tag-pam-denicola","tag-planner","tag-professor","tag-public-space","tag-senior-planner","tag-susanna-fuller","tag-urban-green","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Common Plan - 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