The Electronic Town Hall: The Use of Computer Technology to Facilitate Community Participaton in Place Design
Toby Israel	© & Author Info

Abstract

Environmental design researchers long have recognized the importance of community participation in design (Arnstein, 1969). The use of computer technology as a participatory tool creates opportunities for citizens to visualize and verbalize opinions regarding their community. By implementing a "Community Vision Survey" for the township of Hillsborough, NJ, this project addressed the question, "Can computer technology effectively facilitate citizen participation in place design?"

Introduction

Hillsborough Townships goal was to identify a supportable scheme for transforming a suburban strip highway corridor into a "neotraditional" Town Center District/Main Street Area consistent with the New Jersey State Plan. The existing commercial corridor, along Route 206, is slated to return to local jurisdiction after the New Jersey Department of Transportation builds a new by-pass. Township officials recognized that public education, involvement, and support would be crucial elements for a successful project.

The Township utilized a computer-based Community Vision Survey to mobilize broader and more meaningful public participation by:

1. overcoming the challenge of reaching and gaining input from a geographically dispersed, low density suburban population.
2. educating the public while soliciting input and feedback on the goals, objectives, and development patterns appropriate for the Town Center District/Main Street Area.
3. providing a richer level of understanding of planning and community design overall by giving citizens with a holistic means of applying policy, aesthetic and economic considerations to suggest new design.
4. using an exciting, engaging, interactive computer-based tool.

Over one thousand citizens learned about the project and provided input at various public locations. Using computers, the public answered interactive questions and chose images of development they would prefer for the Town Center District/Main Street Area. Ultimately, this planning initiative used the Community Vision Survey as a research tool that would provide a framework for the re-examination of the Township’s Master Plan and the preparation for development regulations and design guidelines, so that future development could be guided in a manner supported by the community.

Sensitivity

One of the most unique aspects of the Community Vision Survey is the fact that it created by understanding the public’s perceptions of Hillsborough Township and aspirations for its future. The central commercial corridor along Route 206 consists of conventional, suburban, auto-oriented streetscapes, parking lots, and single-story structures. Through previous planning efforts, Hillsborough Township officials identified the opportunity to transform this area into a "traditional" Main Street of mixed-uses, higher-quality architecture, and pedestrian-friendly streetscapes and public spaces. The Township officials knew that the most effective way for this new community identity to be successful was to mobilize broad public participation and education.

Through various focus groups and workshops, facilitated by several local government agencies, the community was involved in the formation of the content of the Community Vision Survey. These workshops fostered collaboration among different stakeholders constituencies, ranging from business owners to government officials to citizens. Some of the key participants included a senior citizen group, the local Chamber of Commerce, elected officials, the Planning Board, and a broad-based Committee on the Town Center District/Main Street Area.

The workshops utilized hand-outs and discussions to gather input on the community’s preferences for the qualities they want to maintain and change in the Town Center District/Main Street Area. Some of these sessions also provided an opportunity to "test" survey questions and concepts prior to finalization. Most importantly, through these input sessions the community had the opportunity to participate in the creation of the Community Vision Survey and share proprietorship in its success. This "bottom-up" approach was essential in helping planners understand the community’s views on past, present, and future development patterns.

Innovation

The Community Vision Survey is designed to be accessible, educational and user-friendly, allowing even a computer-shy person to complete it within twenty minutes. In essence, a participant looks at questions, statements, lists, and images on the computer screen and uses the mouse to select answers. The design portion of the Survey is composed of image screens with multiple images and visual simulations. The Survey allows the participant to make choices on design issues ranging from streetscape improvements to signage to parking lots, as they relate to the context of the existing area. The multiple-image methodology allows participants to compare alternative designs. These techniques is also educational for the user since they can "see" the issue, give their opinion on the solutions, and become educated about the effect of the planning and design process.

One of the most innovative aspects of the technology involves a set of interactive computer simulations that allows the participant to instantaneously view the effect of changing streetscape elements on an existing area. Participants look at an image of an existing streetscape along the existing commercial corridor and can select design improvements which are immediately simulated onto that image. This exercise allows people to "see" an image change character by simply pressing or depressing buttons on the screen.

Use of this technology in Hillsborough allowed citizens not only to visualize and comment on specific environmental changes but to give their opinions about the overall goals and objectives of town planners. In this way planners gained perspective on new directions under consideration.

Such gathering of public opinion was particularly crucial in Hillsborough, a town with a population of 35,000 people spread over 54 square miles. This innovative use of technology allowed broad public input from such a large and dispersed population, building confidence that any consensus reached was truly representative.

What this new use of technology affords, in fact, is and electronic version of a planning method that increases people’s knowledge of the planning process, itself. Rather than being simply recipients of visual and verbal knowledge of planning alternatives, participants are actively engaged in using such information to reach decisions about preferred alternatives.

Effectiveness

Decision-makers authorized the use of this technology to better understand the perceptions of the community and stakeholder groups. Yet the very creation of Hillsborough’s Community Vision Survey was a collaborative effort involving not only government officials but a broad-based combination of community and advocacy groups.

Thus the Community Vision Survey built public awareness of the Township’s planning efforts by allowing citizens to participate in the planning initiative. The Town Center District/Main Street Area currently suffers from a lack of identity, continuity, and walkability. The Community Vision Survey permitted participants to help select public streetscape improvements for the area, to actually "see" the impact of those changes, and to give an opinion on how much public funding should be allocated to making such changes.

Transferability

The Community Vision Survey built upon the already established planning practice of "visioning’ but, by introducing the use of technology to this process, it expands the tools available to planners. It helps planners encourage and nurture community participation, education, consensus-building, and determination f community character. The Community Vision Survey advances the field of planning by providing a method that allows citizens to choose those development qualities they wish to preserve, to alter, or to see enhanced in their community. The technique developed here is transferable to the planning of new communities as well as to redevelopment. Similarly it is appropriate for use in suburban, urban and greenfield situations.

This innovative use of state-of-the-art technology creates a new holistic learning process that provides not only a richer level of understanding of how specific environments can be changed for the better but of the complexity and exciting opportunities provided by planning and community design overall.

The first two screens below are among a series of screens utilizing a forced-choice methodology to obtain preferences for commercial streetscapes and other design issues. The upper left image on each screen is an existing condition in the study area; the other images are design alternatives that were pre-selected collaboratively in workshop sessions with Township officials, business representatives and steering committee members. Follow-up screens probed respondents to determine what design features they most liked on selected screens.

In addition to gathering input, the survey is designed to educate the public about planning issues in a hands-on manner. This set of screens follows an introductory screen which explains how a Main Street is characterized by its streetscape. On the top screens, respondents are given an opportunity to actually select specific streetscape improvements and "see" the existing scene change before their eyes. A follow-up screen probes respondents on their willingness-to-pay for public improvements with tax dollars.

This second sequence of streetscape elements also utilizes visual simulation techniques that allow respondents to "see" the existing screen change, depending on the improvements selected. The final category (Main Street buildings and sidewalk cafes) allows respondents to better understand how public and private improvements can complement one another.

A series of screens was prepared to specifically test design preferences on signage. The results are being incorporated into a new sign ordinance.